Dan could be the man in the middle for City
AT the age of 19, new City signing Danilo scored a gorgeous winning goal in the biggest game in South American club football.
And in doing so the teen sensation, then a rising star with Santos, encapsulated exactly why the Blues have splashed out £26.5m for his services this summer.
Raiding down the right flank from his position of right-back, he carved inside onto his left foot – equally as trusty as his right – and whipped his shot into the far corner of the Penarol net with all the technique of an attacking midfielder.
Since then he has gone on to prove himself principally as a rightback with Porto, and it was to fulfil that role that Real Madrid spent £22.3m to take him to the Bernabeu.
That move has not worked out, to the extent that he was being booed by the impatient Madridistas at times last season – and City offered him an escape route.
But they have offered him much more than that. Pep Guardiola does not pigeonhole players, and has made it plain to Danilo that he does NOT see him as simply in contention with Kyle Walker for the rightback spot.
He will also be fighting it out for left-back with Benjamin Mendy, with the France international set to complete his move to the Blues.
But – and this might have been crucial in landing Danilo with Chelsea also keen – he has been told that Guardiola also sees him as a deep-lying midfielder.
Such distinctions are blurred in the mind of Guardiola of course, as City saw last season when they went down the football equivalent of Alice’s rabbit-hole to a Wonderland where full-backs morph into midfielders, and goalkeepers play as sweepers.
No-one would be too surprised to see Danilo start the season as a holding midfielder with Walker and Mendy as first-choice full-backs. He has said, in the past, that he prefers playing a central role, although his success at right-back for Porto – where he was an inexhaustible galloping flanker in the Cafu and Carlos Alberto mould – has narrowed his options. Those options will again be broadened out by Guardiola, who has happily declared he will not seek a replacement for Fernando, who is due to leave the club this week. The first job for Guardiola is one in which he specialises, building up Danilo’s confidence again after a traumatic time at the Bernabeu, where some fans made him a scapegoat. He came under intense scrutiny at the Bernabeu, and has jumped at the chance of rebuilding his career at City. If he can get back to the performances he used to produce – whether as a Porto full-back or a Santos midfielder – City will have a real gem on their hands.
No-one would be surprised to see Danilo start the season as a holding midfielder Stuart Brennan