Man City rivals have two options to counter Pep Guardiola's latest tactical evolution

Pep Guardiola’s formation shift halfway through last season guided Manchester City to the treble, but over the summer teams in the Premier League will no doubt be working out ways of playing against it.

Signed in Guardiola’s first window, John Stones’ trajectory means he can now be seen as the typical beneficiary of the glory-filled Pep era. Being a level-headed and slick defender who has a fantastic range of passing and is eternally confident on the ball, Stones always was in many ways the archetypal Guardiola player.

But the former Everton man has often endured spells out of the team in his seven-year stint playing in the blue half of Manchester, where his patience must have been tested.

Sometimes this was a result of persistent hamstring injuries which have bothered Stones in recent years, other times he missed out on account of Pep’s strict rotation policy and occasionally he has just been out of favour at City. In the 21/22 season he played just 14 times in the league and was often left on the bench or out of the squad entirely.

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As someone who has bought into Guardiola’s philosophy, Stones was rewarded last season with regular playing time and was the subject of an inspired tactical shift made by his manager.

In the home fixture against Liverpool on April 1, Manchester City’s starting lineup consisted of four centre-backs - Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake, Manuel Akanji and John Stones. Far from an elaborate April Fools' joke, this was a calculated move by Pep to get the most out of Stones’ talents.

City, who were still some way adrift of then title favourites Arsenal, came from behind to win 4-1 in the game with many pointing out Stones’