A season on the edge has sharpened Alleyne's edge

There is a particular kind of education that only comes from being thrown in at the deep end. Max Alleyne got that education in January, when Manchester City's defensive options collapsed around them and the phone rang with an early recall from Watford.

Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol had both gone down with serious injuries. City needed bodies. In stepped a young defender who had been quietly impressing in the Championship, and Pep Guardiola did not waste any time easing him in. Alleyne started immediately against Brighton at the Etihad and went on to make seven appearances before the season was out.

That experience is showing now. In City's opening friendlies of pre-season, against Inter Milan and the K-League All-Stars, Alleyne has come on at half-time in both matches and looked a more mature player for the six months he spent around Guardiola's squad.

Quietly doing the unglamorous work

Enzo Maresca's system, much like Guardiola's, asks a lot of its defenders. The line sits high, the space behind is inviting, and anyone wearing a City shirt has to be alert to the ball over the top and the threat of the counter. Against two opponents happy to spring forward, that has been a genuine test.

Alleyne has passed it. He has closed down danger well, and his anticipation of what might develop has stood out. He is not yet a game-breaking presence in possession, but he knows where the ball should go and how to keep City's passing machine ticking over. On both sides of the ball, the understanding of the club's concepts is evident.

That is no accident. The final six months of last season, spent as a member of Guardiola's squad, have prepared him for life under Maresca.

The numbers behind the need

There is a practical reason this all matters. City will need five centre-backs for the coming campaign, because entering a season with four recognised options and a schedule that could stretch to 60 games is asking for trouble.

Last season proved the point. The constant fitness problems of John Stones and Nathan Ake hurt the FA Cup and Carabao Cup holders, and the situation came to a head in January when Gvardiol and Dias both went down against Chelsea, forcing the recall of Alleyne in the first place. It is a set of circumstances nobody at the club will want to repeat.

Vitor Reis has looked the favourite for that fifth-choice role, impressing at centre-back in both friendlies. But Alleyne, working quietly alongside him, has made a case of his own. There is an argument that he is more physically ready for the demands of English football right now, and that for the time being he might be a step ahead of Reis in his development.

Both players figure to be prominent in City's defence in the years ahead. For now, though, Alleyne's performances in these first two friendlies look like those of a player who has grown up fast. Fifth-choice centre-back for 2026-27? It is not a far-fetched notion at all.