I'd personally prefer us to sign a right-back because Walker's getting on a bit now and I think Cancelo and Zinchenko are both good enough on the left side for different reasons. But I do wonder if we're signing Cucurella because, long term, Pep doesn't see Cancelo as a left-back in this team. Maybe now we've got a proper striker in the squad again, Pep sees inverted wide players as something we have to move beyond - we've got to keep reinventing ourselves to stay ahead so maybe having Cucurella and Zinchenko out there is his way of doing it.
Of course Mahrez is still around but Pep probably reckons he's worth City sacrificing a bit of shape because his goal return is ridiculously high. Grealish will likely still be out there on the left sporadically but I wonder if, what with Gundogan slowing down and Foden no longer playing false #9, he'll see more minutes in the centre. I wonder if this is why Raheem's probably staying after all, because Pep's planning to keep him on the right and he's better than Jesus out there. Means that Mahrez would probably be the only full-time inverted wide midfielder in the squad.
I worry about where Zinchenko's going to get minutes this season, though. I don't think he's good enough to rotate regularly at left-back, and he struggled to get in the team despite us only having three full-backs all last season. So maybe Pep sees him as an understudy for Cucurella and Foden? Maybe we'll see Zinchenko further forward at points this season, maybe in European games when we need to sacrifice a bit of attacking threat and need someone to keep a winger pinned back? I dunno, it's all in Pep's head, I suppose.
