Pep Guardiola named Manuel Akanji at right-back in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Southampton with Kyle Walker injured, allowing Joao Cancelo to operate at left-back at the expense of Sergio Gomez.
Despite playing a full 90 minutes in Wednesday’s 5-0 win over FC Copenhagen, Gomez was benched over the weekend and might be disappointed at the treatment from his manager.
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Gomez has made seven appearances in all competitions this season, grabbing one assist. He’s amassed 286 minutes of playing time, starting just two games which were both in the Champions League, so Guardiola hasn’t trusted him in the Premier League just yet.
The 22-year-old was signed from RSC Anderlecht over the summer to replace Oleksandr Zinchenko who joined Arsenal, but he’s being eased in slowly. Gomez has great potential and has been used from the bench in five of City’s last six league games, so Guardiola does have a plan with him.
Gomez started in City’s opening Champions League group game but was dropped for their second European outing less than a week later. He’s received similar treatment after Copenhagen, though he played 20 minutes from the bench against Southampton.
The Spanish international will know he won’t walk into the team, but might he suffer a knock to his confidence if Guardiola is now putting a centre-back at right-back just so a right-back can operate in a makeshift role on the left?
In other news, Jurgen Klopp has theory on why Pep Guardiola sold Man City Gabriel Jesus to Arsenal
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