manchester city right-backs pep guardiola
manchester city right-backs pep guardiola
Ranking Every Right-Back Used by Pep Guardiola at Manchester City
Over the last 12 months, the right-hand side of Manchester City’s defence has become a problematic area. The performance levels of club Legend Kyle Walker drastically fell and youngster Rico Lewis was not quite ready to fill the void left by the 35-year-old. By the end of the campaign, Matheus Nunes, a midfielder by trade who started the season playing on the left wing, was being used as a makeshift right-back. In this article, we will rank all of the right-backs that Pep Guardiola has used throughout his nine years in Manchester thus far from “worst” to best, based solely on their performances under the Catalan manager.
8. Bacary Sagna
For large parts of his three-year stint in Manchester, Bacary Sagna played second fiddle to Pablo Zabaleta on the right of City’s defence and the 2016/17 season, his sole campaign under Guardiola, was no different.
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The Frenchman made 25 appearances for the Cityzens, 16 of which came in the Premier League, providing two assists but failing to score a goal. He was a dependable backup in one of the more unspectacular City sides led by Guardiola, but was past his peak physically and failed to consistently impact games. Sagna left the Etihad in the summer of 2017 following the expiration of his contract.
7. Matheus Nunes
If he was able to replicate his best performances week in, week out, Nunes would be challenging for a place on the top half of this list. His excellent physical traits combined with his underlying technical skill, which he has because he is a natural midfielder, have meant that he has produced some terrific performances in a Sky Blue shirt, for example, against Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium.
Unfortunately, the 26-year-old’s spell on the right-hand side of defence has been marred by a number of individual mistakes. His performance against Bournemouth in May summed up his spell at right-back. The Portuguese put in a solid defensive performance and even provided an assist for Nico Gonzalez, but he made a sloppy back pass in the 93rd minute, which cost City their clean sheet.
It looks like Nunes will be playing a lot of football at right-back in the 2025/26 season, which means he will potentially be able to move up this list in the future if he can eliminate these unforced errors from his game.
6. Danilo
Danilo arrived alongside Kyle Walker in the summer of 2016 with big expectations as the Cityzens paid good money to pry him away from Real Madrid. The Brazilian was signed as cover for both full-back positions, though the likes of Fabian Delph and Oleksandr Zinchenko were eventually preferred at left-back in the absence of Benjamin Mendy.
His spell in Manchester was largely unspectacular, aside from an excellent strike away from home against Burnley, but he ranks higher than Sagna and Nunes because of the teams he was part of. During Danilo’s two seasons at City, they became the only team to reach 100 points in a single top-flight season, and they won the domestic quadruple.
5. Pablo Zabaleta
If this article was looking at entire tenures at City, Zabaleta would have been competing with Kyle Walker for the number one spot. Unfortunately, the Zabaleta that worked under Guardiola was not the same swashbuckling right-back that he was in the first half of the 2010s.
By this point, he was a highly experienced veteran who captained the side on multiple occasions in Vincent Kompany’s absence during the 2016/17 campaign. The Argentine made 32 appearances in all competitions that season, finding the back of the net twice in the process. He fought for the badge during a tough campaign for the Cityzens and was deservedly called a ‘legend‘ by Guardiola after his final game for the Sky Blues.
4. Rico Lewis
Some may be surprised to find Rico Lewis so high on this list given his relative youth, versatility and that he slightly struggled during the 24/25 season. However, only Walker and Cancelo have played more games at right-back under Guardiola than Lewis.
Despite being just 20 years of age, he has already played 94 times in all competitions for City whilst also making five caps for England. The youngster broke into one of the most successful football teams of all time when he was just 17 years old as he displaced arguably the best right-back in England and Premier League history.
Lewis is one of the most technically gifted and tactically intelligent full-backs on the planet, and has been repeatedly praised by his manager. Although the last 12 months have been tough, fans should not forget the underlying ability which he has shown previously.
3. Manuel Akanji
Manuel Akanji was the most difficult player on this list to rank. His appearances at right-back thus far have been few and far between, but they have largely been during one of the most historic periods in the global history of football.
Signed as cover for the centre of defence during the summer of 2022, Akanji ended the season as the right-back in City’s treble-winning team. He played on the right of defence during City’s emphatic win against Bayern Munich and during the Champions League final against Inter Milan. If not for an injury that Nathan Ake picked up towards the end of the 2022/23 season, which forced the Swiss international to the left of the defence, he likely would have played even more games at right-back.
2. Joao Cancelo
Cancelo had some excellent periods at City and he sits comfortably above the rest as the second-best full-back of Pep Guardiola’s tenure. He was named in the PFA Team of the Year during the 2020/21 and 2021/22 season, whilst also making the FIFPRO World XI for 2022.
After arriving in Manchester as part of a £60 million deal from Juventus, which saw Danilo go the other way, the Portuguese initially struggled under Guardiola, as many players do. He exploded into life during the 20/21 and 21/22 seasons as his outstanding technical ability and passing range combined with his defensive tenacity to make him one of the most feared full-backs in Europe.
The defender was used as both a right-back and a left-back in order to accommodate Kyle Walker, but he fell out with Guardiola midway through City’s treble-winning season after his minutes were reduced following a drop in his performance levels.
1. Kyle Walker
The reason that there are only seven other players on this list is because of the utter dominance which Walker has asserted over the right-back position under Guardiola: no one can logically dispute his position at the top of this list.
Full-backs were an area in which City struggled during Guardiola’s first season in charge, leading to the Catalan spending big on Walker in the summer of 2017. Some questioned the initial £45 million fee that the Cityzens paid for the Englishman given that he never looked like the perfect full-back at Tottenham Hotspur, but they were quickly proved wrong.
Walker made 319 appearances for City over eight seasons in Manchester, scoring six times and providing 23 assists for his teammates. Most importantly, he was extremely defensively solid and provided excellent athleticism down City’s right flank.
The Englishman thrived in big Champions League games playing against the very best wingers in the world, winning a staggering 17 trophies with City, including the 2023/24 Premier League as City’s club captain.
Although his last six months in Sky Blue saw his performance levels fall, Walker’s legacy should be defined by the seven previous outstanding seasons of service he gave to City.
Note that the likes of Abdukodir Khusanov and CJ Egan-Riley, who only made a couple of appearances at right-back, have been omitted from this list due to the small sample size of games available.