Pep Guardiola indicated Manchester City will be looking for a different type of player in the summer transfer window.
The manager has spoken on a number of occasions this season about how the team is not built for transitions, and since the World Cup has preferred to stack his defence with centre-backs with four lining up for the recent wins over Crystal Palace and RB Leipzig. Despite the success playing this way, Guardiola told reporters on Friday that the Blues would be in the market for the type of players they do not currently possess.
Full-back is an obvious place to look at, with Joao Cancelo having fallen out of favour and gone on loan to Bayern Munich and Benjamin Mendy's contract finally up in the summer. The decision to keep Sergio Gomez with the first team as an option at left-back rather than send him on loan has not yielded much success.
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City's manager declared it "so important for the future" to add more variety to the squad after explaining why his team has had to adapt in defence.
"We build up with a perfect three that suits perfectly for the players we have," he said. "If we needed to play with full-backs wide up and down for 90 minutes like 95 per cent of teams play in that way, we cannot do it. We don't have the players to do this right now.
"We don't have full-backs to go up and down every three days - oh my God. We don't have this quality so we have to adapt."
While full-back will need to be addressed, City's priority for the summer will be in midfield. Ilkay Gundogan is out of contract at the end of the season and Bernardo Silva's future is uncertain, leaving a potential void in the heart of the team that will take some replacing. Dortmund's Jude Bellingham is being eyed by several top European clubs but will likely command an eight-figure fee.
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