Kyle Walker and Joao Cancelo transfers complicate Man City full-back plans

Pep Guardiola was so keen on using full-backs as part of his Manchester City vision that the Blues spent around £150m on Kyle Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo in his first year at the club.

Since then, Joao Cancelo has been added for £60m, while Aleks Zinchenko, Fabian Delph, Angelino, and Sergio Gomez have all arrived or been used to solve the long-running problem position. Only Walker and Cancelo can be considered successful signings, while Zinchenko was a good servant before leaving last summer.

It's telling that despite Guardiola's commitment to full-backs, and struggles to really solve his left-back dilemma, City won the treble with a back four made up of centre-backs. Cancelo was jettisoned in January, Walker was benched in Istanbul, and teenager Rico Lewis truly disrupted the status quo in the squad.

The evolution of John Stones and Nathan Ake into inverted full-backs has given City a different set of options for the coming season - but the futures of Walker and Cancelo still need to be resolved.

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As part of a new series ahead of the upcoming season, here we look at each position in City's squad and look at each player's aims for 2023/24:

Where he can improve: If he stays, Walker will be tasked with matching the likes of Stones and Lewis when it comes to inverting into midfield - although Walker's strengths from right-back are often allowing someone else to push into midfield as he solidifies the defence as a back three. He also showed in pre-season his value in getting up and down the right flank as a more traditional right-back to offer width that City have lost with Riyad Mahrez's exit.

What is his main aim this season: Assuming he stays, it