Gvardiol: The 'Soldier' Leading City's Strong Start
Josko Gvardiol looks like himself again. Maybe better.
A year after a broken leg tore a hole through his debut season at Manchester City, the Croatian defender has muscled his way back into the heart of Enzo Maresca’s plans – from the flank, not the middle.
City’s campaign began with a jolt: a 3-0 Community Shield defeat to Arsenal in August that raised more than a few eyebrows. Since then, they’ve slammed the door shut. Six straight wins in all competitions, just two goals conceded in their opening four Premier League matches, and a back line that suddenly feels suffocating.
At the centre of it all, literally, stand new captain Ruben Dias and England’s Marc Guehi, a partnership that has settled quickly. That left Maresca with a puzzle. He had too many high-level centre-backs and one £77m defender who needed to play.
So Gvardiol has been pushed to left-back – and he’s taken the role personally.
From broken leg to driving force
Last season, the story was very different. A broken leg cost Gvardiol five months of football and opened the door for Nico O’Reilly to fill in at left-back, an unfamiliar role for the young Englishman. O’Reilly kept his place during that spell, but his reward now is a seat on the bench and the promise of minutes in his preferred midfield position later in the season.
Gvardiol, by contrast, has treated the switch as an order, not a suggestion. Those close to him describe him as a “soldier”: he plays where he’s told, does what’s asked, and asks for nothing back. He is understood to be satisfied with Maresca’s decision, not sulking about being shifted wide, and believes English football has already sharpened his tactical understanding.
In the summer, he admitted it would take “at least a year before everything heals inside”. That clock has ticked down. Now he’s said to be pain-free, back at full match fitness and playing like it.
A left-back who plays like a centre-back – and a No 10
City paid RB Leipzig £77m for Gvardiol in 2023, making him the second most expensive defender in history behind Harry Maguire. They bought a centre-back. They’ve ended up with a full-back who defends like a stopper and attacks like a rampaging midfielder.
Those around him say he finds left-back more physically demanding than centre-half, but he enjoys the role because it lets him surge forward into dangerous areas. The evidence is already on the scoreboard.
On the opening weekend against Bournemouth, he popped up with a stoppage-time winner and laid on two assists. One of those came in the derby at Old Trafford, feeding Erling Haaland’s controversial clincher against Manchester United. These are not the numbers of a stay-at-home defender.
Old Trafford statement, Premier League menace
At Old Trafford last Sunday, City were forced to play with 10 men from the 23rd minute after Phil Foden’s red card. It should have been an invitation for United to swarm forward. Gvardiol refused to let that happen.
He locked down Bryan Mbeumo for most of the afternoon, winning nine of his 11 duels – the highest tally of any player on the pitch – and making four tackles, more than any of his team-mates. It was the kind of defiant, backs-to-the-wall performance that often goes unnoticed next to the goals at the other end, but inside the dressing room it carries weight.
Across the Premier League season so far, the numbers back up the eye test. Gvardiol sits seventh for total duels won and ranks in the top 10 for tackles made. He is not just filling a gap. He is setting the tone.
The knock-on effect is brutal for others. Algeria international Rayan Ait-Nouri, signed from Wolves as a natural left-back last summer, has barely had a look in his preferred position. Maresca has been forced to use him higher up the pitch because Gvardiol has nailed down the role.
Not every night has been perfect. He endured a rough outing away to Porto in the Champions League, booked in the first half and substituted early in the second. It felt like a one-off, a bad night rather than the start of a slide, and his domestic form has done nothing to suggest otherwise.
Maresca’s trust, City’s gain
In the summer, with Bayern Munich and Barcelona circling, Gvardiol shut the door on any speculation by signing a new five-year deal at Etihad Stadium. He called himself “happy” to extend his stay and underlined Maresca’s mantra that “everyone has to fight for their position, no-one is secure”.
The irony is that right now his place looks as secure as anyone’s.
City welcome Sunderland on Sunday at 14:00 BST, a fixture Maresca has already labelled their “toughest” of the season “because of how good they are”. Another victory would stretch City’s winning run, keep their defensive record gleaming and send Gvardiol off on international duty in the kind of mood he didn’t get to taste in the summer, when Croatia exited the World Cup at the last-32 stage.
England and Spain await in the Uefa Nations League. A different stage, the same role: defend first, drive forward when the space opens up, lead by example.
If this is Gvardiol still learning the position, still growing into his body again after serious injury, the obvious question for the rest of the league is simple: what happens when he hits his absolute peak?
