Rayan Cherki names four positions he can feature in for Manchester City this season | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City have a remarkably versatile player on their hands ahead of the new season in Rayan Cherki, by the player’s own admission.

The France international became Manchester City’s fourth signing of the ongoing summer transfer window to be unveiled to supporters prior to the start of the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States.

The expanded and revamped competition is likely to hand Cherki and his fellow outfield arrivals their Manchester City debuts over the course of the coming weeks, with three group stages matches initially on the agenda for the side.

With Pep Guardiola and Pepijn Lijnders putting the Manchester City squad through their paces at their training camp in Boca Raton, Florida over the last few days, there has been growing conversation among supporters as to how the new arrivals could fit in to the existing line-up.

Rayan Cherki is arguably the name creating the most excitement online, with the 21-year-old widely believed to be the natural successor to Kevin De Bruyne after the Belgian’s exit from the Etihad Stadium after 10 years, joining Napoli on a free transfer.

Speaking during a new interview with French media outlet Telefoot, Rayan Cherki was keen to explain the positional versatility he will be bringing to the Etihad ahead of his first campaign with Manchester City.

“I don’t really have a favourite position. I was lucky to have an eventful start to my career, even in terms of positions or style of playing, so today I can play all attacking roles: on the left-wing, as a number 10, on the right-wing, and I even played as a striker,” the Frenchman said.

Reflecting on his most-recent campaign, which ultimately led to his blockbuster switch to Manchester City, Cherki continued, “I think I had the best season of my career [last season]. I managed to make people talk only about the good things: my passes, my dribbling.

“I don’t hear many people talking about the start of the season [at Lyon] or the unfounded criticism I faced. Very few players would have kept a cool head and fought back. I’m satisfied with my season, even if I can do 18 times better [in reference to his previous shirt number at the club]. Today, my only desire is to be on the pitch.”

The boyhood Olympique Lyonnais fan said, “I think I took a step forward in all aspects: my efficiency, my defensive work and efforts without the ball… everyone knows my offensive style, my dribbling, my passing… That’s not what I worked on the most.

“I instead worked on knowing what I wanted to become, which makes the difference today. Everything that happened to me before what I did this year. I took all my strengths, and I added them to what I had to improve to have a season like this one.

“I had and still have an unquiet start to my career, in the way that it took me long to accomplish what I did this season, even though that was part of my plan, which was to experience tough moments, to be prepared for what might happen next.

“It’s good to start with a bang, but you have to do it over the long-term, and today I feel ready to withstand all the challenges I might have to face.”

Rayan Cherki concluded, “It’s the most exciting [period] as a competitor, when you don’t feel afraid. You only have one desire: to be on the pitch and show that all the criticism was unfounded.”

Cherki and his fellow Manchester City summer arrivals will kick-off their FIFA Club World Cup campaign with a meeting against Morocco’s Wydad AC, before turning attentions to Al Ain of the United Arab Emirates and Juventus of Italy.