“More than capable” Matheus Nunes, Rico Lewis given Man City backing amid Tino Livramento transfer blow, right-back “issue”

Manchester City are “more than capable of competing” for major honours in the 2025-26 season with Matheus Nunes and Rico Lewis as their main right-back options, Citizens expert Steven McInerney from Esteemed Kompany has told Sports Mole.

Following the departure of Kyle Walker to Burnley, Man City’s right-back spot is now up for grabs and Pep Guardiola’s side have been credited with a strong interest in Newcastle United’s Tino Livramento throughout this summer.

However, Newcastle are reluctant to sell the 22-year-old, who is valued north of £70m, and the Magpies are believed to have approached the player’s entourage to discuss a new and improved contract at St James’ Park.

As things stand, a move to the Etihad Stadium appears to be unlikely for Livramento, and with no other genuine transfer targets emerging, Man City are set to begin the new campaign with Nunes and Lewis competing for the right-back position.

Nunes - naturally a midfielder who is ‘not clever enough’ to play in the middle according to Guardiola - featured regularly as a makeshift right-back during the second half of last season following Walker’s January loan exit to AC Milan.

The Portugal international initially came under some criticism for his performances in defence, but many Citizens supporters are now open to the idea of the 26-year-old playing regularly as a right-back, including McInerney.

“City are more than capable of competing” with Nunes and Lewis

Lewis, meanwhile, has somewhat struggled to establish himself as an important first-team regular at right-back since stepping up from the club’s academy as a 17-year-old, but his versatility and mentality are two invaluable assets that Guardiola admire.

Man City have been successful in previous years with makeshift full-backs including Oleksandr Zinchenko and Fabian Delph, and McInerney believes that the club’s right-back “issue” should not ‘hold them back permanently’ in their pursuit of silverware next season.

Asked if he is confident that Man City can challenge for trophies with Nunes and Lewis at right-back, McInerney told Sports Mole: “I am. I think City are more than capable of competing.

“It's not ideal. You might immediately cast yourself back to Zinchenko, people like Fabian Delph, but the counter of that immediately would be that City were probably better back then.

“They had the core people like [Aymeric] Laporte, [Vincent] Kompany and Kyle Walker at his very, very best. Kyle Walker being freakishly talented allowed us to have a slightly poor left-back option, it definitely did.

“Everything was just much more set. Peak David Silva, peak Kevin De Bruyne, peak Ilkay Gundogan, peak Fernandinho, peak [Sergio] Aguero, peak [Raheem] Sterling, et cetera. Having said that, it's still Guardiola, it's still a great side. Despite all the struggles [City] finished in the top four last season and we are going to be better.

‘Man City’s right-back issue should not hold them back permanently’

“City's biggest weaknesses last season came from not being able to [control the midfield], not being able to smother teams anymore. The counter-press was absolutely terrible, teams got through us far too easily, we were incredibly unenergetic, we couldn't run anymore, the team was old, it was tired and it couldn't keep the ball as well as it used to.

“I expect all those factors to be solved by the [new signings]. A refreshed dressing room and training ground, a refreshed Guardiola with new ideas, a younger (squad) profile, and hopefully the likes of [Abdukodir] Khusanov, Nico Gonzalez and [Omar] Marmoush can kick on, I expect it to be a very different Manchester City side.

“All to be said, I don't think the right-back issue should hold City back permanently. You do need a better option, but I've seen Rico Lewis and Nunes both have really good games. They're very capable.

“Maybe we see a back three with someone like Khusanov playing at right-back, but also as sort of a quasi-right centre-back, as [Rayan] Ait-Nouri pushes forward.”

Discussing whether Nunes is currently ahead of Lewis in Guardiola’s thinking and whether he could start at right-back in City's opening Premier League game of the new season away against Wolverhampton Wanderers, McInerney said: “Currently, I think so. I do think the dynamic of the team and how they play will make a difference on that front. Tactically it could be different as well.

“I think Nunes was favoured for his pace and his recovery (ability when defending) given City were so poor last season. It remains to be seen how we're going to play this year.

“I think Rico Lewis was at his very best when City had such a physically dominant backline. You think of John Stones, Ruben Dias (at centre-back). Josko Gvardiol was often at left-back as well, [or Nathan] Ake at left-back, where you got these big, strong left-backs stroke centre-backs who were doing great work physically.

“Lewis has got one of the biggest brains in the team”

“Then you had Rodri in midfield at his very best, with City keeping the ball and so on, which allowed Rico Lewis to get into midfield and help going forward. Rico was great in assisting in a system that was set up to allow for him not being the biggest, so to speak. It's possible that City go back towards that.

“Rico Lewis does find his form in a more confident Manchester City side. Of course, there's the physical issues remaining. He's small, he's really small for a professional footballer, but he's got one of the biggest brains in the team and he's such a smart player.

“It was only natural that when the team was exposed physically last season that his deficiencies would be exposed too. If City fixed some of those issues - and I suspect they will do with the new signings and they're much more capable physically - I don't see any reason why some of Rico's problems won't be helped too.

“He actually looked in good form at the Club World Cup until he got that unfortunate sending off. I think he'll come back very motivated, physically he probably is a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger.

“I'm not sure about height, but physically he's growing still. He's only very young still, I feel like he's been here forever, but he's only 20 years old. He's still a baby in football terms, and I wouldn't write him off.”

“Nunes is getting better and better,” McInerney continued. “He's a very good, aggressive attacking right-back already, despite being in the [early] stages of his right-back career.

“I think Nunes with his physicality, his improvement and his ability to get in behind with that searing pace that he's got, and he's so good at carrying the ball, I think that's going to favour Guardiola for now.

“But Rico Lewis is a player that Guardiola absolutely loves, understandably, and I'd be amazed if Guardiola doesn't look at him at some point in a system of his choosing.”

Man City could sign overseas right-back to rival Nunes, Lewis

Despite McInerney’s backing of both Nunes and Lewis, he still feels that Man City will sign a new right-back before the summer transfer window closes on September 1, and he believes that the club will consider targeting overseas players as alternatives to Livramento.

“I expect City will sign a right-back, and I think the fact that they've gone homegrown for James Trafford probably lets City go overseas for a right-back,” said McInerney. “They probably are looking internationally now as opposed to domestically with Livramento.

“We were linked with people like Wesley who's joined Roma. I think there were some tepid links to Jules Kounde as well, [but] it turns out he's going to stay at Barcelona.

“Those links tell me that City aren't against the idea of an overseas signing, potentially, if we can move people on because they have to make the squad balance right, in terms of the foreign slots. I think it's possible.”

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