Manchester City expert Steven McInerney from Esteemed Kompany believes that Pep Guardiola's side should look to sign a new right-back and left-back in the summer transfer window.
After spending around £180m on four new signings in January, Man City will continue their much-needed squad rebuild in the summer, one to be led by incoming sporting director Hugo Viana who is expected to target younger players to address the age profile of Guardiola's current squad.
A number of high-profile players could leave the club as part of City's "brutal" rebuild, including 34-year-old right-back Kyle Walker, who is currently on loan at AC Milan but is expected to depart permanently in the summer.
Injury-prone Nathan Ake, 30, may also be facing an uncertain future at the Etihad Stadium, and his potential departure would leave Josko Gvardiol as Man City's only recognised first-team left-back.
Asked if the addition of a new right-back will be high on City's priority list for the summer should Walker leave, McInerney told Sports Mole: "I feel it's both sides (right-back and left-back) if I'm being honest.
"[Signing a] right-back is essential. I think Kyle Walker was the best defensive full-back in world football and probably Man City's greatest ever right-back, probably the Premier League's greatest ever right-back.
Will Man City push to sign new right-back and left-back this summer?
"[Matheus] Nunes has done a decent job at right-back, but he still looks like a midfielder playing at right-back and there's lots of question marks, fairly, around the physicality and suitability of Rico Lewis for that role long term, so I think City absolutely 100% have to sign a right-back."
McInerney added: "I also do feel like City need a left-back if I'm being honest as well, because Nathan Ake is very injury prone these days. I don't think there are any guarantees Ake is here next season.
"I think he will be, but I don't think there's any guarantees he's going to be fully available an awful lot, which essentially leaves just Josko Gvardiol, unless Guardiola really does want to lean in on the Nico O'Reilly left-back thing which I'm not convinced is going to be a permanent solution. It could be, I might be wrong there, but something tells me there's a sort of twist in that story somewhere.
"So that could leave City needing another full-back and I'd really like to see City, just for variety's sake, have a traditional overlapping full-back because we are in that intense running period of football where everyone is a physicality monster.
"I think City, as good as we have been over the years, we've had a lot of inverted full-backs, but I definitely think we could do with a bit of versatility, so we can get forward and go wide of the wingers and make Jeremy Doku and Savinho's life a damn sight easier, so they're not constantly trying to beat two or three people. Imagine how much easier it'd be for Doku or Savinho or Oscar Bobb, whoever's going to play there, if you have someone out wide of them."
'Someone like Cambiaso would be perfect'
One name who has been heavily linked with a move to Man City in Juventus full-back Andrea Cambiaso, someone who is comfortable operating at either right-back or left-back and has developed into an important first-team player with the Serie A giants in recent seasons.
"Andrea Cambiaso at Juventus seems to be almost nailed on for the summer potentially," said McInerney. "There are a lot of rumours that that was basically done as a summer deal. Obviously it's not signed or anything like that, but they've sort of agreed a price that would be a summer price but they wouldn't pay the January premium to bring him in, which would have been £5m to £10m extra.
"He's 25, Italian international, lots of experience at one of the biggest clubs in world football, Champions League experience, very versatile, can play on the left, can play on the right. I think Guardiola would love a player like that who's so comfortable progressing the ball up the pitch.
"I think Cambiaso is such a Guardiola signing. He can contribute pretty much all over the pitch essentially, so he would be a very obvious option there (at right-back)."
"I think Andrea Cambiaso is an absolute cert, because he can play either side," McInerney added. "I think Guardiola would probably use him as a right-back, even though he plays a little bit at left-back for Juve, I think he still would use him at right-back, sort of an inverted [Joao] Cancelo there. I do feel someone like him would be perfect."
Robinson "a really good option", Kerkez the "current hot thing"
McInerney has also talked up the possibility of Man City signing either Fulham's Antonee Robinson or Bournemouth's Milos Kerkez, who have been two standout performers for their respective clubs who are challenging for the European places in the Premier League.
"A decent option could be Antonee Robertson at Fulham. He's got better and better and better and he's actually number one in the Premier League statistically at the moment as a full-back," said McInerney. "No-one puts in more crosses or does more sprints or overlaps more than Antonee Robertson.
"He's been absolutely excellent for Fulham for a long time, but he's got better and he's sort of reaching his peak now. He'd be a really good option."
"City could go for the current hot thing which is Milos Kerkez at Bournemouth," McInerney continued. "An absolute sprint machine. He also looks like a young Andrew Robertson, sort of a re-gen of him, very similar hustle-and-bustle approach.
"I think it's fair to say Bournemouth would not be the side they are without people like him. Iraola clearly trusts him. I think it's him and [Dean] Huijsen who have had the most touches on the ball for Bournemouth.
"A very technically competent player, but one trusted with a lot of responsibility and a near ever-present as well. He plays more or less every single minute for Bournemouth, relentless energy and in this modern pace-and-power football era, someone like Kerkez could just get forward and overlap and give Doku an easier time, or [Omar] Marmoush the license to get more central would be excellent.
Could City look to sign Robinson, Kerkez, Livramento?
"Somebody who can cross a ball when you've got Erling Haaland who's 6ft 4in and he's starved of good crosses, especially if [Kevin] De Bruyne is getting on a little bit. I would love to see a traditional overlapping full-back at City; just the versatility. Gvardiol is great, but he's not going to do that and get a cross in."
McInerney believes that the addition of a natural left-back such as Robinson or Kerkez would give Guardiola the option to rotate Gvardiol, who has been tasked with playing regularly in the absence of the injured Ake, even though he has made several defensive mistakes this season.
"I think someone like Antonee Robinson or Milos Kerkez, they're very different takes on Gvardiol's left-back role," he added. "You do need variety, not every game is going to be the same and I think it's fair to say as good as Josko Gvardiol is, he's not had a great few months, he's made a lot of mistakes, he's given goals away at times.
"He's great going forward, but he could have done with someone that he could rotate with, absolutely. Ake would have played more minutes he was available at left-back, but [Guardiola's] not going to trust Nico O'Reilly. I guarantee if Antonee Robinson was there, he 100% would have played him a little bit more at left-back if Gvardiol was struggling.
"That's an experienced, trusted Premier League player who get forward and can do the running and Guardiola has talked an awful lot about his realisation that you have to be able to run these days, you have to be able to be available and consistent... I think the best way City can move forward is with options tactically."
McInerney has also picked out four other potential full-back targets for Man City, including Newcastle United's Valentino Livramento and Bayer Leverkusen's Jeremie Frimpong - who came through City's academy - and has shared his thoughts on which players that he would like Guardiola's side to recruit this summer.
Press play on the video at the top of this article to hear the full discussion. body check tags ::
