Man City have eight players fighting for two spaces after £185m spending spree

The official graphic confirming Manchester City's 27-man squad for the Club World Cup was a Pep Guardiola throwback, including 14 midfielders and just two forwards.

Guardiola often considered the game this way in his formative years as Barcelona's head coach: a team packed with midfielders controlling the game and a couple of brilliant attackers to finish the moves off.

He has moved away from that ideal during his nine years at the Etihad, and in truth, the graphic left plenty of room for debate over who exactly should be considered a midfielder. Omar Marmoush and Erling Haaland were the only players listed under forwards, with Jeremy Doku and Savinho both listed as midfielders.

Oscar Bobb was also down as a midfielder, as were Matheus Nunes and Nico O'Reilly. The latter two would love to play in midfield, having ended the season at right-back and left-back, even if their natural home is the middle of the pitch.

But even if we reclassify those attacking wingers, this is a squad packed with central midfielders once again, and it is going to be one of the most fascinating areas of the team to see develop over the next five weeks in the United States. That list doesn't even include Mateo Kovacic, who ended the season in good form but is set to miss all of the summer with an injury.

When trying to work out the midfield Guardiola is likely to start the season with, there is an obvious place to start. Rodri might not be fit enough to start games in the early stages of the Club World Cup, but he will be ready for August and will be straight back in the team. The real question is who plays alongside him.

Kovacic, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva are the experienced heads, the players used to the system and to Guardiola's