Pep Guardiola names Matheus Nunes who can become 'one of the best' in the world

Pep Guardiola has predicted that Matheus Nunes can become one of the world’s preeminent full backs after a string of improved performances.

Manchester City have deployed the Portugal international in defence after he failed to make an impact in midfield for the majority of his two-and-a-half seasons at the club.

Nunes was signed as a central midfielder by City when they paid £53million to sign him from Wolves but was utilised in Pep Guardiola’s back four last season.

The 27-year-old featured at left back during a late defeat by Manchester United in December and had operated as a winger for a 2-0 reverse at Anfield a fortnight earlier.

Following Kyle Walker’s departure for AC Milan, Guardiola chose to start Nunes at right back for a win over Brentford in January and he has almost exclusively played there since.

The City boss believes that he can flourish there for the remainder of his career, with Rico Lewis, John Stones and Abdukodir Khusanov other options for the spot.

‘Matheus can be an incredible right-back,’ Guardiola said. ‘Because he's a holding midfielder with incredible physicality going back. If he's focused, he can become one of the best.

‘It's a question of him now, we talked a lot about that. It's just about changing your mind and feel that you can feel that, because he has special attributes to play in the sides. In the last two or three games, he has played unbelievable.’

City go to Aston Villa on Sunday having not won there since 2021 but are on a nine-match unbeaten run, beating Villarreal 2-0 in midweek.

Guardiola added: ‘We have good momentum but not the consistency for 90 minutes. We are starting to understand opponents and what we want to do, especially without the ball and to attack more fluently.

‘Our mentality and our body language is in the right spot and it will make us stable. (We need to) play better during 95 minutes, we play good but we need to play better.’