It is a point Pep Guardiola has made repeatedly since the first game of the season and reminders have been littered throughout. Manchester City may have the most valuable squad in world football but they have the smallest in England and second across Europe’s big five leagues.
That is the way the head coach likes it. His intricate gameplans are easy to drill into a smaller pool of players who all feel involved and, for obvious reasons, the bigger a group the less harmonious the environment. “I like to work with not many players and have everyone involved,” Guardiola said on the eve of the campaign. "It is what it is. We have shown in the last years we have a small squad and we are there in the last stages.”
Wednesday night’s 3-0 win over West Ham, a trickier assignment than the scoreline would suggest, brought them on to 23 players used in the campaign so far with Stefan Ortega starting in goal.
