Man City left with £224m question after Club World Cup triumph

Manchester City are officially the best team in the world, and with that can be added the best squad in the world.

It takes more than 11 players to battle through most matches, never mind the gruelling nature of the Premier League and intensity of the Champions League. Pep Guardiola does not have a big group of players, yet he trusts almost all of them implicitly.

One of the themes of this season, though, has been whether the squad is too thin - less in terms of actual numbers necessarily but more in terms of those that the manager feels he can rely on. There has been no suitable replacement for Rodri during his suspensions, John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne during their prolonged absences and Ilkay Gundogan since his departure for Barcelona.

ALSO READ: Man City big-game partnership wins again and can help Premier League race

ALSO READ: Man City world champions know their next target after Kyle Walker comment

Not that there has to be because other players have different qualities, yet the tale of the Premier League campaign to date - one where the champions are hardly in crisis but results have significantly tailed off since they won their first six - is one of City not quite getting their alchemy right. Guardiola is yet to find that rival-crushing blend that has seen the Blues sweep to trophy after trophy.

It felt striking as they won their latest one, the Club World Cup in Jeddah, to see the line-up put out by the manager to win the game. And if there was any doubt that Guardiola really wanted the trophy, his sharp suit made clear how serious he was.

A glance at the XI revealed that none of the players City signed this summer were there. A second glance showed that none of the players City signed last summer were