Manchester City may not need to splash the cash on a new right-back if Matheus Nunes continues to improve in his new defensive role, Citizens expert Steven McInerney from Esteemed Kompany has told Sports Mole.
Pep Guardiola’s side were tipped to sign a new right-back in the summer transfer window following the exit of long-serving defender Kyle Walker - who initially departed on loan in January before leaving permanently in July - but they were unable to recruit an ideal replacement.
Newcastle United’s Tino Livramento emerged as a leading target for the Citizens, but they were put off by his asking price of around £90m and opted to spend their money on targets for different positions.
While Livramento has spent time on the sidelined through injury this season, Nunes has emerged as Man City’s first-choice right-back, with the Portuguese taking advantage of Abdukodir Khusanov's injury issues and Rico Lewis seemingly slipping down the pecking order.
Nunes was signed by Man City for a reported £53m from Wolves in 2023 as a powerful box-to-box midfielder, but Guardiola said earlier this year that the 27-year-old is not "clever enough" to play in the middle of the pitch and has since stated that he has all the attributes to become an “incredible” right-back.
Man City’s No.27 has impressed across his eight games at right-back in all competitions this term, scoring and providing an assist in a 5-1 Premier League win at home to Burnley which came before eye-catching displays against Everton, Villarreal and Bournemouth.
Steven McInerney / Esteemed Kompany YouTube image
Nunes proving the doubters wrong as Man City’s right-back
McInerney has been impressed with Nunes’s development and was delighted to see how he kept Bournemouth star Antoine Semenyo - one of the Premier League most in-form players so far this season - quiet on the left flank in Man City’s 3-1 Premier League win last weekend.
“When you watch Nunes at the Club World Cup and even last season when he started playing right-back, what impressed me with Nunes was obviously, those long, bursting runs, that pace he's got to overlap and so on, but I think the last several games for Nunes have been impressive defensively,” McInerney told Sports Mole.
“There was a sort of head-loss moment against Brighton when he gave away a penalty, but other than that, he's been really consistent defensively.
“There were best-in-the-league shouts for Semenyo recently. He's been absolutely unplayable at times, and yet he barely got a look in (against Nunes). I know Bournemouth didn't utilise him perfectly, but he still got the ball and Nunes still did his job really, really well.
“That physicality he's got - we talk about the requirements these days. Nunes is a big enough fella. He's not 6ft 4in, 6ft 5in, but he's 6ft. Incredible pace, really, really good stride, great lungs, and of course, naturally, he's got to be pretty good technically because he's been a midfielder.”
“I've been pretty critical of him because I felt he's a little bit below the standards and I said I'd be amazed if he ever made it in Manchester City. Now I feel a bit of an idiot, to be honest,” McInerney added.
Manchester City's Matheus Nunes on June 26, 2025
Man City “won't go back into the market” if Nunes continues to improve
“He clearly has the desire and the hunger to improve and Pep has more or less said it in press conferences that essentially, if he wants that role, if he wants to be a great right-back, it's there. It's entirely up to him because he has all the tools.
“You cast your mind back to Kyle Walker when he first joined. He wasn't technically the best in the side and he became more than competent, in fact, pretty good on the ball by the end of his spell at Man City. There's no reason Nunes can't improve technically further. There's no reason he can't improve more defensively because he's a different player entirely than a year ago..
“When you look at the pair of them, Nico O’Reilly and Nunes, neither of them were full-backs, but both of them have got great physicality, both of them are technically solid, and they're both improving defensively week on week.”
Sharing his thoughts on Man City’s pursuit of a new right-back, McInerney said: “You look at the market for right-backs and you see [Tino] Livramento quoted for £90m. I think Nunes is having a better season, and that's not even me putting my blue tinted specs on. It's just genuinely, genuinely true.
“If Nunes was a 22-year-old English full-back, and given the market, people would be asking for £60m, £70m for him.
“I think if Nunes carries on with this same trajectory - and I know it's only been 10 games - but if he carries on this way, [Man City] won't go back into the market. They'll think this guy can do it.”
Manchester City's Matheus Nunes and Erling Haaland celebrate on August 16, 2025
Nunes is a "quality" full-back and “the shirt is his if he wants it”
Asked if the right-back spot is now Nunes’s to lose, McInerney added: “The good thing is that Khusanov was really good before his injury too. He looked so solid defensively, a little bit more limited in terms of the attacking output. But you've got two very different options there.
“Khusanov does a more than passing Kyle Walker impression, not quite Kyle Walker but he has that same defensive instincts. Nunes obviously has the edge in terms of his ability to drive past people and get forward and overlap and so on, and he's showing signs of improvement.
“I think Nunes is more obviously a complete potential full-back - Nunes is actually a full-back now. I think we need to probably reframe the conversation because we can argue about the overall ability, but that is a full-back.
“If you sort of silhouetted him out and just watched how he played as a footballer, no-one would question that's a full-back, and I think the fact that he used to be a midfielder - I'm saying used to for a reason because he isn't anymore - Nunes is playing as a good full-back.
“Could he be a great one? I don't know, but he is clearly more than competent, in fact, that's a very good full-back, a potentially Champions League-level full-back, because he's playing for one of the best sides in the league right now, playing really well, he just played against one of the best wingers in the league (Semenyo) and did really well.
“That's a quality full-back. He becomes great if he does it consistently, but that's what he is and that shirt is his if he wants it.”
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