Matheus Nunes has opened up about his transition to right back at Manchester City and the emotional departure of manager Pep Guardiola.
The 27-year-old enters the new Premier League season as first choice under manager Enzo Maresca. However, Nunes admitted he initially struggled after Guardiola moved him into defense in 2025 and even considered leaving the club.
Those closest to Nunes had to persuade him to accept the positional change during his lowest moments. For six months, he refused to accept that he was no longer a central midfielder.
Teammates Bernardo Silva and Ruben Dias constantly pushed Nunes to accept his new position. Silva even gave him nicknames depending on where he lined up on the pitch.
"When I was playing as a winger, Bernardo would call me Thierry Henry," Nunes said. "Then I played as a full back and he called me Cafu."
Nunes recalled how Silva and Dias kept urging him to embrace the move. "Bernardo and Ruben were so annoying all the time, they were in my head constantly: 'You were good there, you were good there. You need to accept it.' And I was like, no, no, no, all the time," Nunes said.
"I always told my friends that I wasn't a full back. At a certain point you just have to see what the people are saying. You can't be denying it for the rest of your life. If you do, maybe you miss your chance. Now I feel like a full back."
Difficult Switch from Midfield
Nunes had previously excelled in central midfield for Wolves before joining Manchester City. During the move into defense, Guardiola once remarked that Nunes was not clever enough to play in midfield for City, a comment the manager privately clarified with him the next day.
The adaptation proved tough, filled with setbacks and mistakes. During a derby defeat, Nunes under-hit a back pass and barged Amad over to concede a penalty in panic.
"Individually I would say this is probably the most difficult game," Nunes said. "In my head after the game… when you do mistakes as a midfielder, you would never affect the game like that one. I did one mistake and it led to a goal, and then you end up losing the game and that's all you think in your head, you know?"
He added that the position caused him severe internal discomfort. "In my head, it was 'I'm not a full-back. I'm not a full-back'. That's all I was thinking about."
Training Ground Banter and Leeds Mistake
Nunes also developed a close friendship with defender John Stones, built around teasing each other. Nunes regularly tried to get under Stones' skin at breakfast, describing his goal as trying to "p*** John off."
Stones got his revenge 18 hours after a dramatic win over Leeds last November. During that match, a mistake by Nunes led to a goal from Dominic Calvert-Lewin that sparked an unlikely Leeds comeback. Nunes corrected one error at full back only to give away possession inside his own penalty box.
During the following warm-down session at City's training complex, Stones mercilessly mocked Nunes for the error. Stones felt safe doing so because Phil Foden scored a stoppage-time winner and Nunes was already growing comfortable in defense.
Mindset Change and Pep Guardiola Exit
Nunes saw a psychologist during his positional transition, and his mindset shifted during the Club World Cup. Guardiola later told him he saw elite potential in him as a defender.
"I think in the Club World Cup, my mindset started to change," Nunes said. "Oh, I can actually play good. I had maybe three or four games in a row and then the beginning of last season I started playing every single game. Then your head just flips and you can see it through."
"If I didn't change my mindset I would never have played good there and he would never have said stuff like that," Nunes added. "He probably said that because he started to see what others couldn't see."
Nunes became emotional when discussing Guardiola's departure. When Guardiola officially announced he was leaving, staff and players watched a video montage of his speeches and team moments across his ten years at the club.
"A lot of people were crying," Nunes said. "Pep held it together. He just wanted to get it over quickly. It became real that he was actually leaving. It's difficult to talk about."
He praised the departing manager's impact on Manchester City. "It's very hard to say goodbye to someone who gave so much to us all. Someone who put the club to a level that seems unreachable again. What he did was unbelievable. A lot of things are going to change. I've never been in the club without him. It's never easy to say goodbye."
Sombre Summer of Departures
The departures of Stones and Silva made it a sombre summer for Nunes, who reflected on losing two key figures in the squad.
"Huge losses," Nunes said. "If you look at it, John was a very important figure in the club. He was always a joker. The three of us were. I'm just being myself, and then I end up being a clown sometimes. What's the point of life if you're not having a laugh?"
