Pep Guardiola could revive abandoned John Stones plan to solve Man City transfer dilemma

Manchester City's Carabao Cup win at Oxford in 2018 will be remembered for Phil Foden's first goal of many for the club, but it also featured another significant selection from Pep Guardiola.

In a game against League One opposition, Guardiola rotated and experimented, with Foden, Aro Muric and Brahim Diaz starting at the Kassam Stadium.

When the City team sheet was revealed, fans may have thought Guardiola would offset that inexperience with a back five as Vincent Kompany, Nicolas Otamendi and John Stones were all named in the starting line-up.

Stones would be used in defensive midfield, though, as Guardiola continued an experiment tried off the bench a handful of times previously of using the former Everton man as a shield for the defence.

Given Oxford's level, Stones got a feel for the position, but didn't give much of an indication of whether it would be a useful plan B going forward.

Later games against Crystal Palace in the league and Leicester in the cup signalled the end of the experiment and Stones would return to battling with Otamendi to partner Kompany.

The following year would see Stones struggle to get into Guardiola's side at all, but he recovered last season to form an impressive partnership with Ruben Dias. Now, with Aymeric Laporte back in his best form, Guardiola finally has three world-class defenders, all playing well, competing for two spots.

So how does three go into two? Rotation is fine when the games are regular Premier League or cup fixtures, but once the big matches come around those three players will all be expecting to start.

In recent weeks, it seems Guardiola's solution is to start all three - but to shift Stones out to right-back.

It's a position he's deputised in before, but never been