Benjamin Mendy, Kyle Walker or Danilo are some of the names that have come to Manchester City since Pep Guardiola took the reins of the team in the summer of 2016. All of them side , and none has finished convincing a coach for whom Players covering the flanks of the defense are critical. The last to arrive was Joao Cancelo from Juventus, and with his hiring he already has a total of 190 million euros used in the hiring of players who occupy this position in only three seasons.

The first to arrive were Walker , for which City had to pay Tottenham 53 million , and Mendy , which cost 58 after a great season with Monaco. In 2018 he landed in Manchester Danilo from Real Madrid in exchange for 30 million . The Brazilian right-back has not counted much the coach in the last two seasons, and has ended up leaving towards Juventus to reduce the transfer of Cancelo , which finally remained at about 35 million euros . To all this we must add two more affordable operations such as that of the Ukrainian Oleksandr Zinchenko , which only cost two million euros , and the Galician Angeliño , who were about 12 , both from PSV Eindhoven.

In search of balance

All this disbursement on the sides is because Guardiola does not finish finding stability in that area of ​​the field he had in his two previous clubs. In Barcelona, ​​Dani Alves on the right, much more offensive, was completed perfectly with a converted left-handed center as Eric Abidal . In Munich, David Alaba was always a fixture for his performance both in attack and defense, and on the right side he also had guarantee players like Philipp Lahm, Rafinha or Joshua Kimmich .

In the City, despite the two league titles achieved, he has not reached the semifinals of the Champions League in these last three seasons, a date he never missed as coach of Barça and Bayern. Guardiola seems to know the weak point of his team and we will see if the reinforcements are enough to overcome the barrier of the quarterfinals in the maximum continental competition.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • sports

TennisFederer, from glory to disenchantment for a few centimeters

FootballWhen money is not everything: De Rossi goes to Boca Juniors

FootballHacienda near Neymar: calls for the embargo of its millionaire Barça renewal bonus