Man City’s second-smallest squad in Europe should come as no surprise if you know Pep Guardiola – Dominic Farrell

Last weekend’s chaotic defeat to Tottenham proved something many Manchester City fans had been saying all along, albeit not in the way we’d have liked.

Pep Guardiola’s excellent and admittedly expensively assembled squad are not impossible to compete with. They are not irreparably damaging football. It is not the case that there’s no hope whatsoever for anyone else.

An interesting misconception within this reductive analysis, ultimately a clumsy attempt to justify giving little to no credit to an obvious demonstration of sporting excellence, is that City have an unfathomably deep squad, with world-class footballers falling out of the cupboards at the CFA.

Therefore, in some quarters of the fanbase, the CIES Football Observatory’s latest weekly investigation was greeted gleefully.

It showed that of all clubs in Europe’s big five leagues – England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France – only West Ham (27) have used fewer than City’s 28 players in domestic top-flight matches over the past 365 days.

This does not mean City’s squad is not wonderfully well-equipped and built precisely to their coach’s specification. On the contrary, it is lean and mean side by Guardiola’s design.

“One of the common misconceptions about Pep’s time as Barca coach was that he planned to duplicate every position in his team, giving him two right-backs, two left-backs, two centre-forwards and so on,” wrote Guardiola’s biographer Marti Perarnau in his book Pep Confidential .

“In fact, he wants footballers who can play in at least two, if not three positions. He is looking for men with the talent and flexibility to play as central defenders, defensive midfielders or central midfielders.”

Look across City’s squad today, and there are numerous examples of this type of versatility, creating an impression of excessive depth. Whether it’s Bernardo Silva being at home anywhere across the midfield and forward positions or specialist central defenders Nathan Ake and John Stones filling in at full-back, this is a must to succeed under Guardiola.

Last term, Sergio Aguero’s injury struggles meant City had played the bulk of the past two seasons without a striker. They reached 100 goals for 2021/22 on Saturday in a game where career right-back Joao Cancelo was their main attacking threat from left-back.

A capacity to find solutions rather than a plethora of options is what Guardiola requires.

“I adapt for the good moments, the performances of the players, and for many reasons, I adapt,” he said last week.

“It’s not a problem. In the first season, [City won the Premier League under his management] I played with [Fabian] delph and then [Oleksandr] Zinchenko as a left-back, and it’s not a problem. I’m not asking them to go up and down like a typical left-back. They adapt their quality.”

The likes of Zinchenko and Ake frequently feature in Guardiola’s pre-match interviews. Whenever he is asked why a star player is not in his starting line-up-Riyad Mahrez being the latest example against Spurs-his stock response from him is to list those lesser lights that also “deserve to play”.

Some mockingly perceive this as disingenuous, much like when Pep credits as “amazing” opponents who made it “so difficult” for City to thump them 5-0, but there are reasons to take him at his word.

Battling for multiple honors every season, playing high-end and tactically intricate football requires an engaged squad fully buying in. This is easier to achieve with smaller numbers, ensuring everyone feels involved.

At present, City operates with 17 senior outfield players in the squad. Ferran Torres’ mid-season departure trimmed numbers more than was planned, but it feels perfect – especially given the increased prominence it allows for the likes of Cole Palmer, James McAtee and Liam Delap on matchdays.

How much Guardiola has and hasn’t picked the best academy products at City will continue to be a matter of debate, but being able to use them within the first-team environment certainly makes him a happier coach on a day-to-day basis .

“I loved working with them,” he said elsewhere in Pep Confidential . “It’s much easier to train youngsters than it is older players. Much easier. You feel like you’re really coaching.

“With older guys, you have to watch and review what you say, how you say it, you have to take into account the result of your last match. You stand there watching the expressions on their faces and making sure you’re using exactly the right words.

“With the kids, you just take them by the scruff of the neck and bring all the talent out, just like squeezing an orange. I get so much more out of it – and it’s a lot more fun.”

Other than the eventual state of McAtee and Palmer’s collars, it shows there really is not much to worry about at City as they look to return to winning ways.

Pep Guardiola has plenty of reasons to be cheerful, from adaptable seniors to exciting juniors and the optimum number of both. External misconceptions, as always, are best ignored.

Has a squad ever been more in tune with Pep Guardiola’s demands than this one during his five-and-a-half years at Manchester City? Follow City Is Ours editor Dom Farrell on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.