When you have an excess of central defenders, one way to keep them all happy is to play an extra one. That's exactly what Pep Guardiola did as Manchester City cruised past Al Ain in the Club World Cup, and it was a system made possible by one of the June arrivals.
Rayan Ait-Nouri is a classic wing-back, a role he excelled in for Wolves. While it's likely City have signed him to play full-back as well, he made his debut in a familiar position and was a familiar attacking threat.
He dominated the left flank, while Matheus Nunes played as a wing-back on the right, with Abdukodir Khusanov, Manuel Akanji and Josko Gvardiol in the middle. It was a system that worked pretty well, and one Guardiola could turn to again as the season progresses.
This is the coach who used central defenders as full-backs a couple of years ago. This time, Khusanov and Gvardiol did defend wide, but it allowed Nunes and Ait-Nouri to stay high up the pitch and push their opponents back. That meant Nico Gonzalez, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Claudio Echeverri could play inside and dominate midfield.
It was Ait-Nouri, rather than Nunes, who offered the attacking intent you want from a wing-back, but then he is a natural in that position. He was involved in the move just before the opening goal, surging clear down the left and getting into the box. His low cross was diverted to Echeverri, and from his low shot, City won the corner from which Gundogan scored.
There was even more eye-catching work to come from Ait-Nouri. When Nunes wildly overhit a cross from the right, Ait-Nouri kept it in with a backheel, turned away from a marker to suddenly create space again and raced into the box. A stepover created space and but for a slip, he would have got a
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