Gary Neville reckons Pep Guardiola made a "huge mistake" sanctioning Joao Cancelo's shock loan switch to Bayern Munich in January - and the Manchester United icon believes that the absence of a natural left-back could cost Manchester City the title.
Prior to his departure, Cancelo was one of the most influential players in a squad that had won the Premier League four times in five years, establishing himself as one of Europe's finest full-backs since joining City from Juventus in 2019.
Few, if any, would have predicted that Guardiola would have been willing to part ways with the Portuguese international. However, an alleged training ground bust-up paved the way for Bayern Munich to swoop in for Cancelo, who had been in and out of the Manchester City team since the World Cup.
Intriguingly, Guardiola opted not to replace Cancelo in the final hours of the January transfer window. And after the champions offloaded Cancelo's former deputy Oleksandr Zinchenko to Arsenal in the summer, Bernardo Silva has been filling the role in recent weeks - something Neville does not believe is sustainable.
Neville, speaking on The Overlap In Focus, in partnership with Sky Bet, said: "You can almost get away with a centre-back or a midfielder playing at right-back – for some reason, you can very rarely get away with that at left-back. I feel that Manchester City never tied that position down.
"We’re all worried about questioning Pep Guardiola – looking back now, Sir Alex Ferguson accepted a lot of his mistakes, but only after he retired. He said selling Jaap Stam was a big mistake and cost us for two years. I think we are living in Pep’s ‘mistake’ here, where Manchester City haven’t got a left back and they’re playing Bernardo Silva there in the odd game. That is a mistake that he has obviously contributed towards.
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"I feel a bit embarrassed criticising Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola, but even Sir Alex, who won 13 titles and got 99.9% of his decision-making right – he came out after he retired and spoke about the Barcelona final at Wembley in the Champions League (in 2011) and other moments where he knows he got it wrong.
"We should be quite confident in saying that what we’re watching at the moment is a team that is lacking balance on the left-hand side, and that’s why they’re not getting to their standards. They’re playing Nathan Ake there, he struggles on the ball at times. Bernardo Silva has played there as well, but he’s a massive vulnerability. The goal they conceded against Nottingham Forest was because of having Bernardo Silva in that position."
And Neville even believes that persisting with Bernardo in a role he's unfamiliar with could cost Manchester City the title. Arsenal are currently two points clear of the reigning champions with a game in hand.
Neville added: "Bernardo Silva’s position at left-back has driven me crazy in these last few weeks. He was in that position when he scored against Nottingham Forest, but it makes Manchester City look vulnerable. If City play that system away from home, Arsenal will win the league."
