​After a commanding 5-0 win over Sporting Lisbon in February 2022, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola hailed Matheus Nunes as among the world’s best players. Nineteen months later—by September 2023—Guardiola, by then having signed Nunes from Wolves that summer, conceded that his initial assessment may have been excessive: “Maybe I over-exaggerated a little bit. He’s not.” Fast forward to April 2025, and Guardiola revealed a plan to convert the natural midfielder into a right-back, explaining that Nunes “wasn’t clever enough” to play in the engine room and lacked composure. By July 2026, Guardiola’s experiment had become a roaring success. Only Erling Haaland made more City starts last season than Nunes, who tallied 45 appearances and earned widespread praise for developing on the right side of City’s defense; the manager even conceded that his charge is “becoming one of the best right-backs in the world.”
That evolution would have seemed improbable during Nunes’s first year and a half at the Etihad, but not anymore. City Xtra explains how Nunes has radically transformed his fortunes at the club, stepping into a new era as the first-choice right-back for his adopted side. In the wake of Manchester City’s 2023 treble success, the club adjusted its transfer strategy to prioritize players comfortable bringing the ball forward, aiming to counter the rising prevalence of man-to-man systems in the Premier League. Stylish ball-players like Aymeric Laporte, Ilkay Gundogan, and Riyad Mahrez departed, while Josko Gvardiol, Mateo Kovacic, and Jeremy Doku arrived—offering new physical dimensions and a fresh dynamism to a squad that had already achieved the pinnacle of success. Another midfielder was needed, too, as Kalvin Phillips failed to replicate the Rodri role he was bought for. City pursued Declan Rice from West Ham, but, true to their valuation-driven approach, could not meet the price, and Rice eventually chose Arsenal for more than £100 million.
Links to other midfield targets surfaced—Gabriel Veiga, Lucas Paquetá, and Eberechi Eze among them—but on transfer deadline day, Nunes was unveiled as Guardiola’s final summer signing, the Portuguese star having caught the Catalan’s eye during that earlier meeting with Sporting. Nunes was initially used in a few early appearances in a more traditional midfield position, but the shift to right-back would prove to be the turning point of his City career.