Josko Gvardiol appears to be returning towards his best by helping Manchester City make an impressive start to the new campaign, after a serious injury disrupted his previous season.
Manchester City followed a 3-0 Community Shield defeat by Arsenal in August by winning six straight games in all competitions. Gvardiol has been part of a defence that has conceded just twice in their opening four Premier League games.
With new captain Ruben Dias and England international Marc Guehi beginning to form a solid partnership in central defence, Gvardiol has been deployed at left-back and is making the position his own. City host Sunderland on Sunday (14:00 BST) in a game manager Enzo Maresca has described as their “toughest” so far this season “because of how good they are”. Victory over the Black Cats would maintain City’s winning streak and send Gvardiol off on international duty with Croatia in high spirits; Croatia face England and Spain in the Uefa Nations League after their summer World Cup ended at the last-32 stage.
Gvardiol’s return from injury has required Maresca to find a place for him in the starting line-up despite numerous quality central defensive options. The former RB Leipzig defender missed five months last season after a broken leg, which allowed Nico O’Reilly to continue featuring in an unfamiliar left-back role. O’Reilly, 21, has had to be content with a place on the bench, although Maresca has told him he will be given more opportunities in his favoured midfield position. Sources close to Gvardiol have described him as being like a “soldier”, accepting whichever position he is assigned and performing to the best of his ability for the team. He is thought to be “satisfied” by Maresca’s decision and feels overall he has gained more tactical knowledge of the game since moving to England.
Gvardiol told reporters in the summer it would take “at least a year before everything heals inside”, but he is understood to be pain free now and has returned to 100% match fitness. He arrived at City in 2023 for a £77m fee from Leipzig, making him the second most expensive defender of all time behind Harry Maguire. He has played at both centre-back and left-back, and sources say he feels left-back is a more physically demanding role than centre-half, but one he enjoys because it allows him the freedom to roam forward into goalscoring positions.
The 24-year-old scored an injury-time winner in the season-opener against Bournemouth and has also provided two assists, including for Erling Haaland’s controversial strike that sealed a derby success at Manchester United.
Gvardiol’s attacking capabilities do not take away from his defensive prowess. At Old Trafford last Sunday, he helped City to an unlikely victory with a defiant clean sheet after they were reduced to 10 men following Phil Foden’s 23rd-minute red card. Gvardiol kept Bryan Mbeumo in check for large parts of the contest, winning nine of his 11 duels — no player on the pitch managed more — and contesting four tackles, a match-high of any City player. In all, he has won the seventh most duels of any Premier League player this term, while he also ranks in the top 10 for most tackles made by anyone in the top flight.
That form has meant Algeria international Rayan Ait-Nouri, signed at left-back last summer from Wolves, cannot get a look-in in his natural position and has instead been used further up the pitch by Maresca. Gvardiol had a tricky game at Porto in the Champions League tie, getting booked in the first half and then substituted early in the second, but it appeared to be an off-day rather than something more worrying.
During the summer he committed his long-term future to City by signing a new five-year deal, despite interest from Bayern Munich and Barcelona. The defender said he was “happy” to extend his stay at Etihad Stadium and that under Maresca “everyone has to fight for their position, no-one is secure”. If he continues his bright start, Gvardiol will be assured of his place.