Guardiola has found his new Kimmich in Joao Cancelo: Neil Humphreys
Left-back's unique role key to City's defensive solidity
Finally, Pep Guardiola has his Joshua Kimmich. Or he has his Philipp Lahm, for those who remember the original incarnation at Bayern Munich.
The Manchester City manager has rarely accepted conventional wisdom when it comes to defenders. They never just defend. Such a notion is practically beneath the Spaniard.
They occupy positions that do not require defending. Guardiola prefers his players to defend with the ball, supplying extra bodies in midfield to satisfy his possession obsession.
His purist thinking has always been aspirational and unequivocal. The best defenders rarely defend. They keep possession so they don't have to.
Lahm and Kimmich were master and apprentice respectively in Munich. Joao Cancelo has taken on the challenge in Manchester.
Others tried. A few succeeded. Oleksandr Zinchenko, Fabian Delph and Kyle Walker all had their moments. Walker, in particular, has rediscovered his explosive form of late.
But Cancelo has morphed into the shiny, intoxicating embodiment of a Guardiola fullback, in the sense that he rarely plays as a fullback.
During City's 2-0 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach in their Champions League's Round of 16, second-leg tie yesterday morning (Singapore time), he certainly started there.
Then he drifted into midfield and casually dominated proceedings in a Kevin de Bruyne-kind of way, which was strange as de Bruyne was also on the field.
The pair dovetailed so elegantly, swopping passes and generally doing a decent ripoff of a Xavi and Iniesta double act.
Only one has "playmaker" in the job description, but Guardiola's description of a fullback looks a lot like a Cancelo photo-fit.
If the Spanish of Guardiola's Barcelona era pioneered the false No. 9, then the Spanish manager has very much championed the "false fullback".
The advantages are obvious. A fullback that cuts inside and supports midfield leaves City less vulnerable to the counter-attack.
But the execution is less obvious. It requires an unassuming, 26-year-old Portuguese defender to swagger across the pitch like he's a cross between Lahm, Kimmich, Beckenbauer and de Bruyne.
For anyone else, such a schizophrenic range of responsibilities might trigger an identity crisis. For Cancelo, it's literally a stroll in the park.
Guardiola has suffered too many crushing defeats in Europe to allow anything tactical to be left to chance this time around. Too many defensive errors have ended too many campaigns prematurely.
City needed an extra face in midfield to stop those late collapses and Cancelo's face clearly fits.
He's comfortable at either left or right-back, largely because he doesn't loiter in either position. He appears to boast a third lung - an essential prerequisite for any role in a Guardiola line-up - and pops up everywhere.
Ilkay Guendogan needs a runner on the overlap? Phil Foden fancies a one-two? De Bruyne wants to play keep ball with a fellow quarterback? No problem. Cancelo is your man. He's everyman for City.
Ruben Dias' remarkable form and John Stones' renaissance are major factors in City notching up seven clean sheets in a row in the Champions League, but Cancelo's influence is no less impressive.
He maintains City's momentum by keeping the ball. His opponents can't do much without it.
So spare a thought for the Old Lady of Turin. She should be sobbing this morning, still grieving over that daylight robbery in 2019.
She had her Cancelo taken. A Danilo was left in his place. Never mind Manchester City's best XI, this was a heist to rival the best of Ocean's XI.
How Juventus allowed Cancelo to join City in a part-exchange deal is just one of several extraordinary questions that only underlines Guardiola's foresight.
What did he see in the Portuguese talent that the Italians clearly missed? How does he continue to turn fullbacks into sweeping, surging attacking midfielders? Why has no one else replicated Guardiola's makeovers?
Trent Alexander-Arnold is the obvious exception to the rule, but even Juergen Klopp hasn't quite rivalled Guardiola's reliable knack of transforming promising defenders into game-changing freaks.
And Cancelo may prove to be the pick of the bunch, at least at City.
Opponents cannot keep track of the marauding fullback but Guardiola knows exactly where he is and what he's doing.
Cancelo is closing the gap between failure and success in the Champions League.
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