Richard Jolly:...there is a case for crowning Cancelo the most influential footballer in England. He has been the catalyst for the tactical coup that has propelled City to 19 consecutive wins, the hybrid of full-back and midfielder who defends ...but then moves infield and upfield to act as a playmaker...A converted winger is defender, passer and crosser...[a] full-back with the technical skills and positional discipline to double up as a midfielder in what is becoming a trademark Guardiola ploy, [I don't understand "trademark ploy"] Cancelo feels the Premier League’s accidental revolutionary. 

A year ago, Guardiola was ambivalent about Cancelo...Suffice to say his early plans for 2020/21 did not revolve around one of his biggest buys.

And then COVID-19 happened.

A season that began inauspiciously...has developed in unexpected ways. He became City’s first-choice left-back, then their preferred right-back. Aymeric Laporte was once their premier centre-back; now it seems he owes his place when he does appear to Cancelo, starting only when the Portuguese is the left-back.

...his unique, fusion role...

...it is a tribute to Cancelo’s versatility that he has responded to unorthodox ideas, it also illustrates Guardiola’s adaptability...what might be statistically his best defence is not the result of perfect planning. He has created something special from who was available, not who he might ideally have wanted. 

...

So this is a very 2021 situation. If, as expected, City do become champions, it will be in part because they have a £60 million full-back whose potential lay untapped in the past...Instead of being rejected, he has been reinvented. Instead of being confused, Cancelo is confusing opponents. If it depended on him, now City depend on their radical original.