In the early morning of February 10, the 24th round of the Premier League continued to play, the defending champion Manchester City sat at home 2-0 to win the visiting promotion of Mabrentford, won seven consecutive home games at home and continued to lead the table, Mahrez hit a penalty in the first half, De Bruyne scored in the second half, and Guardiola's team won the game without bloodshed. It should be said that this result is completely expected by everyone, after all, the gap in strength between the two sides is there.
Compared to the last FA Cup match, Guardiola made a big rotation, with Sterling, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Laporte, Díaz and Ederson making a rotation. In the 40th minute of the game, Sterling's strong break into the penalty area was brought down, Mahrez took a steady penalty, he stood on 12 yards five times this season, and Manchester City's usual headache of penalty problems seemed to be solved.
In the 69th minute of the second half, Brentford goalkeeper Raya was busy making a mistake, and his ball was successfully snatched by Sterling, but the latter's happy shot was blocked, but in the face of De Bruyne's supplementary shot on the right side of the penalty area, Raya could not return to the sky. The 2-0 score was also maintained until the end.
In this campaign, City had 75% of the ball on target, scoring 2 goals on 7 of 15 shots, while the visiting team Brentford had only 6 shots on goal and 2 shots on target. However, the MVP of this game is neither Sterling, who made penalties and indirect assists, nor Mahrez and De Bruyne, who scored goals, but belonged to Manchester City left-back Cancelo, who scored no goals and no assists, and his post-match rating was as high as 8.4 points, the only player in the game to score more than 8 points. The question is, why is this Manchester City flying wing so good?
Let's take a look at his data. In this game, Cancello touched the ball 117 times, 6 shots on goal, 2 shots on target, 5 breakthroughs and 4 successes, in addition to 4 steals and 3 interceptions, the above statistics are the highest in the game, in addition, he has 13 ground resistances, 10 successes, and 2 fouls on the opponent. The reason why there were no goals and assists was because of a bit of bad luck. In the 54th minute of the second half, Cancelo flashed around in the penalty area to move three people in a row, but the last shot was confiscated by the goalkeeper, and in the 76th minute, his powerful shot after the cross-cutting in front of the field was deflected off the line at the defender.
In an interview after the game, Guardiola spoke highly of the disciple: "Cancelo is a full-back, but he was our best winger in this game and his form is unbelievable. In fact, today, Canceló's freedom on the flanks really has some shadows of Barca's flying wings at the peak of Alves, and coincidentally, the latter is exactly Canceló's idol.
When playing for Serie A duo for Inter Milan and Juventus, Cancello is also a defender with obvious advantages and disadvantages, he is technically excellent and sharp, but defense is not a strong point, and he only likes to play at right-back, and he is very resistant to the position of left-back. However, after joining Manchester City, Cancelo, who was originally regarded as a right-back candidate by Guardiola, met Kyle Walker, who had the second spring of his career, and had no choice but to go to the left to find opportunities. But overall, Cancelo's Manchester City debut season can only be regarded as an occasional bright spot.
His turning point came last season, in the case of frequent injuries to Aguero and Jesus, Guardiola sacrificed a no-front and double-back tactic, in this formation, the left-back Campello was given a high degree of tactical freedom, in the game, he often swam to the middle of the midfield to form a practical double back with Rodri, thus allowing German midfielder Gundogan to be completely liberated, and the latter also ushered in a season that broke the single-season goal record of his career. In last season's home match against Arsenal, Guardiola even placed Cancello directly in the midfield double front, making him a real midfield organizer, but the latter also played well and won the best player of the game.
Guardiola's knowledge has made Cancelo the best winger in world football, and his skills and skills have become more and more comprehensive. It is best to describe him as saying that "a right-back who doesn't want to be a left-back is not the best winger".