Update: |”Not clever enough” – Pep Guardiola comments confirm Man City transfer priority News

Pep Guardiola praised one of his makeshift defenders as Manchester City drew with Manchester United – but they are comments that read particularly damingly.

Surely the last derby was enough to show that Matheus Nunes is not a full-back, when he hand-wrapped two goals for Manchester United in injury time.

Yet in a season where Manchester City defenders have dropped like flies, Nunes has been a necessary right-back option even though he keeps offering evidence that he is not a very good right-back.

So with United sure to target him, Pep Guardiola had a plan on Sunday. Nunes would push up high on the right as a touchline-hugging wing-back. Bernardo Silva would drop in from midfield and the pair would keep Alejandro Garnacho quiet.

Barring the first-minute run from Garnacho that tempted a yellow card from Ruben Dias, the system generally worked – helped by a weak United attack and plenty of inoffensive City possession.

But credit where it is due, Nunes did okay and Guardiola went out of his way at full-time to double-back on himself en-route to the dressing room and offer a hug to his out-of-position midfielder.

And then he might well have killed Nunes’ City prospects in his press conference.

“He can become a good right-back for the physicality,” he said, following praise with comments he will struggle to come back from: “I think he’s not a player to play in the middle because he’s not clever enough, in composure.”

If Guardiola means the middle of defence, that makes sense because Nunes at centre-back would be as disastrous as it sounds. If he means in the middle of midfield it would bring back memories of when he told Kalvin Phillips that he was not suited to playing in a position where there are things happening behind him so pushed him back into defence?

The Nunes ‘praise’ immediately drew comparisons and Guardiola continued: “He has incredible skills and he’s learning a lot; full-backs always have a big mistake when a cross to the far-post where you are, always they’re sleeping. And he defended really well two or three crosses from Bruno Fernandes, [Patrick] Dorgu. He has physicality to do it, he can play that position and he’s helped a lot.”

Guardiola is right that Nunes played well at Old Trafford – one back post header stood out to save a certain goal – but the manager changed his system to keep Nunes from defending one-on-one against Garnacho. It is also important to say he has done well enough out of position in a very difficult season.

Guardiola’s decision at right-back between Nunes and Rico Lewis comes down to physicality or versatility: Nunes has started more games there since the last derby but even when he’s impressed he’s still blatantly not a full-back.

“When we started the season and I tell we’re going to play Matheus at right-back, Nico [O’Reilly] left-back, you’d tell me, ‘What are you talking about?’,” he said.

And if you tell him that City will start next season with Nunes as one of his only two right-back options he will have a similar response. If Nunes is not a midfielder – and Guardiola might have just bolted that door shut – and he isn’t a right-back as the derby tactics suggested, then what is he?

Phillips left on loan soon after Guardiola’s summer comments and is about to get relegated from his preferred position. Nunes is in danger of falling into a similar category of failed transfer.

City must prioritise a right-back in summer, and if Nunes can’t play in the position they signed him for, he might have to be moved on.