Back is the future over Gvardiol position

Josko Gvardiol arrived at Manchester City as a centre-back who could represent the Blues for the next decade.

But so far, he has predominantly played as a left-back, pushing Nathan Ake out of the way to start City's biggest games of the season there. He openly admitted that left-back was not his natural position at RB Leipzig, and he has been a first-choice centre-back for Croatia for the last two years.

Now, though, with Guardiola using him at full-back, Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic will follow suit and play Gvardiol on the left for their must-win qualifiers this week. So where is Gvardiol's long-term position?

Of his 13 appearances so far for City, Gvardiol has played just twice as an out-and-out centre-back. The nature of a City left-back, especially this season with Kyle Walker bombing forward, is to tuck inside to a back three or push into the inverted holding midfield role. Gvardiol isn't perfect at that yet, but he's still more than capable.

He's been keeping Nathan Ake out of the side at left-back too, starting away at Arsenal, United and Chelsea, and appears to be first choice at the start of the season.