{"id":484710,"date":"2025-10-09T04:16:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/484710\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T04:16:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T04:16:24","slug":"how-englands-nico-oreilly-proved-man-city-doubters-wrong-pep-guardiolas-pet-project-what-hes-learning-from-phil-foden-the-cole-palmer-similarity-and-why-only-one-person-thought-hed-be-a-left-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/484710\/","title":{"rendered":"How England’s Nico O’Reilly proved Man City doubters wrong: Pep Guardiola’s pet project, what he’s learning from Phil Foden, the Cole Palmer similarity and why only one person thought he’d be a left back"},"content":{"rendered":"

Morphing midfielders into full backs ought to come as no great surprise at Manchester City<\/a> these days yet Pep Guardiola<\/a>\u2019s latest idea in that area of the pitch, vocalised last Christmas<\/a>, prompted quite a bit of chatter among coaching staff.<\/p>\n

Nico O\u2019Reilly was the academy superstar who had scored a scorpion kick and 40-yard lob within the space of a week, an Under 18s captain who had won consecutive league titles and was renowned for his flair and ability to pull off the spectacular. He played one season as a lone striker.<\/p>\n

But as he started training with City\u2019s seniors, first briefly while in the Under 16s before then becoming more of a regular, Guardiola noticed his strength and \u2013 more pointedly \u2013 his height. The City boss is used to the likes of the diminutive Oscar Bobb and Rico Lewis excelling from the youth teams, and O\u2019Reilly represented an outlier.<\/p>\n

The suggestion of using him as left back was a surprise though and there was a genuine curiosity in what Guardiola could come up with. Within four months, O\u2019Reilly was changing the direction of an FA Cup<\/a> fifth-round tie at Bournemouth<\/a> from that position and then starting a Manchester derby as an old school No 3.<\/p>\n

He finished the full 90 minutes of an FA Cup final there and \u2013 hopeful of a senior England debut against Wales on Thursday \u2013 will provide real competition for Rayan Ait-Nouri once the former Wolves<\/a> man returns from injury.<\/p>\n

\u2018I was actually a left back when I joined the academy,\u2019 O\u2019Reilly tells Daily Mail Sport. \u2018I got moved into midfield, more attacking. Then defensive midfield and now left back.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Manchester <\/p>\n

Manchester City full back Nico O’Reilly has been called up to the England squad for the first time<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The 20-year-old has not even featured for England Under 21s yet but has shot into Thomas Tuchel’s squad<\/p>\n

It\u2019s funny really, because on a podcast last December the former City defender Nedum Onuoha put it to O\u2019Reilly that he would end up as a defensive midfielder. \u2018No, no, it\u2019s not happening,\u2019 came the retort. Incredibly, he\u2019s gone even further back.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old from Failsworth – a boyhood City fan who grew up with Lewis, still does the food shop with his mum Holli and whose stepfather\u2019s sympathies lie with the red side of town – has taken on every opportunity afforded; it\u2019s culminated in international recognition and a new contract until 2030, which he signed last month.<\/p>\n

It was only a few years ago when one senior executive scoffed that \u2018we have other players, you know\u2019 when it was suggested that O\u2019Reilly was the next cab off the rank.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And there were some apprehensions about his laidback nature when he was younger. Self-assured to the point of standoffish, as one source puts it. \u2018He\u2019s got a similar mindset to Cole Palmer,\u2019 another says.<\/p>\n

Dean Brathwaite came down hard on O\u2019Reilly when the pair first met five years ago. \u2018I was quite critical of him, wanting him to do more,\u2019 says Brathwaite, a private coach who has worked with O’Reilly extensively. \u2018I felt like his shooting was quite easy, he wasn\u2019t (properly) putting it in the net.<\/p>\n

\u2018He didn\u2019t come back for a while, maybe a year or so. I bumped into his mum at a game and she said she wanted to get him back in. He improved a lot. Tall people don\u2019t understand their size for a while.\u2019<\/p>\n

O\u2019Reilly is quiet. Very reserved. City\u2019s players respect that and it was noticeable that after Bournemouth, Guardiola was pushing him towards the away end to accept the plaudits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Phil Foden, his mentor, did exactly the same after O’Reilly scored a crucial goal away at Everton in April. City\u2019s analysts roared encouragement as he pressed Jonny Evans into conceding a corner during a professional debut in last season\u2019s Community Shield.<\/p>\n

\"Pep <\/p>\n

Pep Guardiola has converted O’Reilly, who played one season in the City academy as a lone striker, into a full back\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"O'Reilly's <\/p>\n

O’Reilly’s performances will make it hard for\u00a0Rayan Ait-Nouri to force his way back into the City side when he has recovered from injury\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remarkably, in the days before his true breakthrough moment at Bournemouth, there were conversations as to whether O\u2019Reilly would feature for the academy in a UEFA Youth League quarter-final at AZ Alkmaar.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bournemouth, with two assists and a storming display after a half-time introduction, saw him wave goodbye to kids football for good.<\/p>\n

He still goes to Under 21s matches to watch his mates, still pops in to see the on-site house parents who look after academy players, former coach Ben Wilkinson and education staff.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His development stalled with a broken ankle in 2023, which kept him out for longer than anticipated amid rehabilitation complications, and it\u2019s partly why England\u2019s Under 21s had only just called him up. He\u2019s not even made his bow at that age group.<\/p>\n

Once Thomas Tuchel made the call, at 11pm on Sunday night, O\u2019Reilly was straight on to his mum. Holli was speechless and O\u2019Reilly has recounted how, as a single mother, she dedicated her life to him. Even though he was only six, Holli left the choice of where he played football up to her son.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was between (Manchester) United, Liverpool, Everton but got narrowed down to City and United,\u2019 O\u2019Reilly tells Daily Mail Sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018The training at that age was so much better, I just enjoyed it more. It\u2019s very basic training but at the other clubs it was just run around, play games \u2013 it wasn\u2019t really helping you out. It was a bit of fun.\u2019<\/p>\n

One major benefit during O\u2019Reilly\u2019s formative years was consistency \u2013 especially in coaching. Danny Walker took his team up until Under 13s and then again in later age groups. If you\u2019re thinking that Walker\u2019s name sounds familiar, it\u2019s because he is now Enzo Maresca\u2019s No 2 at Chelsea.<\/p>\n

\"O'Reilly's <\/p>\n

O’Reilly’s breakthrough moment came at Bournemouth last season when he had a stormer in the FA Cup quarter-final tie<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The youngster provided an assist for Erling Haaland that day as City went on to win 2-1<\/p>\n

\"Guardiola <\/p>\n

Guardiola pushes the laidback O’Reilly over to the travelling City fans to take their acclaim<\/p>\n

And it was Chelsea who came barging through City\u2019s front doors last January, just weeks after Guardiola had presented his grand plan to colleagues, to see whether they could prise O\u2019Reilly away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Learning from their Palmer mistake, City would have insisted on a buy-back clause and the move did not progress beyond that.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Reilly – represented by the same agency as Guardiola \u2013 had held talks over the new deal during the summer and it was eventually signed in September. There was a slight delay between agreement and actually signing during which time Bayer Leverkusen registered an interest too.<\/p>\n

Quite where their former boss Erik ten Hag planned to play O\u2019Reilly is anybody\u2019s guess. For more reasons than one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morphing midfielders into full backs ought to come as no great surprise at Manchester City these days yet…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,92,393,31425,94,4884,886,1037,93,6573,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-484710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-england-football","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-manchester-city","15":"tag-pep-guardiola","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-thomas-tuchel","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115342278239777352","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}