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There is half a mile of private shoreline reserved for guests of Manchester City’s beachfront hotel on Florida’s east coast. Among the decks of loungers and luxury cabanas are some zero gravity chairs with essential shade, looking out on the Atlantic.
The first fortnight of City’s new era has felt weightless, new coaches becoming big hits with the players and two straightforward victories over inferior opposition – so comfortable that Ilkay Gundogan felt able to rebuke his team-mates for a sluggishness in hammering Al Ain by six.
The day after that, which confirmed their safe passage into the Club World Cup’s last 16 before Thursday's top spot decider with Juventus, Pep Guardiola joined his squad in frolicking along the sandy stretch as they completed a recovery session on the seafront. In games of two-touch, the manager took delight in any miscontrol from his stars, including Tijjani Reijnders.
Irrespective of results from here, this has felt like a harmonious trip, a worthwhile exercise in banishing last season and starting afresh but as Guardiola knocked about with a custom-made volleyball left at the Boca Raton resort from US Bank’s internal awards retreat earlier in the year, he will know big calls are coming.
Director of football Txiki Begiristain is leaving straight after the tournament and then Hugo Viana is riding solo. After a flurry of arrivals, City’s business will largely be in the opposite direction.
Seven weeks until the Premier League kicks off and the size of the squad as it stands – 27 players are here, with Jack Grealish, James McAtee and the injured Mateo Kovacic all elsewhere – isn’t sustainable.
It has been a harmonious trip for Pep Guardiola and Co, but arrivals such as Abdukodir Khusanov have presented a squad puzzle that needs to be solved
As it stands, the size of the Manchester City squad is not sustainable and they need to trim it
Not sustainable for Guardiola, who prefers a tighter group and who, Mail Sport understands, reversed a decision to bring around 10 academy kids to America for fear of leaving too many out of the matchday parties. The plan had been for those not picked to undergo training sessions when games were on and Guardiola clearly felt that would do nothing for morale.
Not sustainable for City on a practical level, either. Aside from the manager’s own personal thoughts on keeping millionaires happy, while the current squad would fit within Premier League guidelines, the same cannot be said for the Champions League. City have too many foreign players and too few homegrown stars for UEFA’s equation.
It’s easy to become bogged down in the regulations but essentially for both the league and Europe, clubs cannot name more than 17 foreigners. That complicates itself by the age of four recent international signings – Vitor Reis, Claudio Echeverri, Savinho and Abdukodir Khusanov – who can be registered in the league but not Europe, where City basically have 21 players for 17 spots.
Assuming that both Grealish and England Under-21 captain McAtee leave – the former is likely to head out on loan closer to the season starting – then homegrown numbers are down to five, not including Under 21s Rico Lewis and Nico O’Reilly. That number includes Dutchman Nathan Ake and Norwegian Oscar Bobb, both of whom qualify after coming through English academies.
It’s a riddle, a puzzle to piece together for City. Four of those on this trip are going to have to go, either permanently or temporarily, unless Guardiola is forced into leaving somebody out of the Champions League journey.
One by one, they keep revealing publicly that staying put is their desired outcome. Bernardo Silva was first and handed the armband by Guardiola, who ripped up his collegiate leadership framework – which has stood for almost two decades – after the outgoing Kyle Walker’s ill-fated time as captain. Guardiola pulling rank indicates he means business, with Silva seeing out the last 12 months of his deal.
Then John Stones strode forward to say he wants to make up for lost time and made a point of ‘shutting down’ speculation over his future. Similar noises from Ilkay Gundogan, wanted by Galatasaray, albeit not with the same forcefulness of the other two.
Funny, really, because those three were top of the list for supporters when discussing potential clearouts and changes of the guard – although not forgetting that Silva and Gundogan’s improved performances as City chased down third spot last term showed they still have something to offer.
Claudio Echeverri is another addition and the club cannot name more than 17 foreigners in their squad for the league and Europe
Some thought lkay Gundogan could be on his way but he is showing he can still cut it
Midfield is the muddle though. City effectively have 12 players – including Lewis and O’Reilly – who can operate in central areas, right up to Rayan Cherki as a foil for Erling Haaland.
Even if he once confessed to wanting a ‘team full of midfielders’, at most Guardiola will operate with five of them. There is possible flexibility with Cherki and Phil Foden but it is still too many.
That is the area Viana probably needs to attack. Echeverri, who scored a stunning freekick in Atlanta during the rout of Al Ain and is in a protective boot after picking up an subsequent ankle injury, was wanted by Lyon until their shock relegation to Ligue 2 for financial issues.
Guardiola is thought to be unsure about the continued viability of Matheus Nunes at right back yet has also questioned his tactical nous in midfield, so there is a deal to be done for somebody they paid £53million for two years ago.
All of that is before the impact of Rayan Ait-Nouri’s arrival from Wolves. His debut, buccaneering down the left and completing double the number of dribbles of anyone else, may lend Guardiola to using a more lopsided midfield.
Rayan Ait-Nouri has impressed and could change the way Man City attack next season
Ait-Nouri pushed high, away from City’s back three, and if that were to continue then one of Jeremy Doku or Savinho becomes a rogue 13th possible midfield option.
There should be better indications of how City want to attack August when they face Juventus, the first of the more challenging games in this competition.
Usually, Guardiola would be expected to shift away from the back three but then, with Pep Lijnders by his side and a fresh outlook, there are no guarantees.
Certainly, who does leave when Viana flies home from America is no guarantee either. To say some of them are playing for their futures might be a stretch but this is no holiday.
