Pep Guardiola's fingerprints can be found all over the Etihad Stadium, with his influence being felt throughout the club.
If you were to watch Brian Barry-Murphy's EDS side on a regular basis you would see that the future generations are being moulded into Guardiola's ideal image. In the senior squad, City play almost hauntingly in keeping with the Catalan manager's tactics.
This robotic quality Guardiola's side now possess has seen accusations thrown at them that they are 'boring'. However, this is far from the case and perhaps the perceived 'boringness' has come from their ability to consistently win football matches.
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Guardiola's power over the Blues is now well established but, the player who now signifies the boss' reach, it turns out, is Joao Cancelo. In a recent interview, the full-back's ex-Inter teammate Borja Valero explained how the Portuguese defender would refuse to play at left-back at the San Siro.
"It makes me smile to see him [Cancelo] play every game as a left-back under Guardiola," Valero told DAZN. "Back in 2018, [Luciano] Spalletti wanted to play him in on the left, but he said: ‘Mister, I am not a left-back.’
"The coach didn’t agree with it but had realised that [Cancelo could play on the left] early."
Guardiola and Spalletti clearly share the similarity of seeing the strengths the 28-year-old has on the left hand side. However, where the two coaches differ is that Guardiola has earned the respect to be able to dictate where a player plays in his system.
It seems unthinkable that Cancelo would have spoken to his current manager in the same way that he spoke to Spalletti in 2018. Cancelo's ability to play on the left hand side is a huge bonus for City considering especially that the full-back made that position his own last season when Kyle Walker was fit.
It would seem that this change of heart from Cancelo sums Guardiola up in a nutshell. His connection to the City squad is so great that he can effectively tell any one of his players to do an unfamiliar role for him and they will do it, no questions asked.
The team's trust in Guardiola's vision is the secret behind the club's unprecedented success and while he remains at the helm this should only continue.
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