Pep Guardiola made an intriguing tactical call ahead of Manchester City's 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
🏆 TOP STORY: Liverpool's 'small club' celebrations slammed
📣 HAVE YOUR SAY: Are Man Utd doomed without Casemiro?
🚨 MUST READ: Where are the NXGN 2017 wonderkids now?
With Joao Cancelo on loan at Bayern Munich, Sergio Gomez struggling to bed in and Kyle Walker landing himself in trouble last week, the coach fielded four natural centre-backs at Selhurst Park.
John Stones played at right-back, Nathan Ake again featured at left-back, with Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji in the middle.
"I like when we play with four centre-backs, we are so solid, they are stable players, they are so calm and so composed – that's why we defended really well," Guardiola explained after barely allowing Palace a sniff at goal.
However, while his side were solid, they struggled to create many opportunities down the flanks and it took a late penalty for them to grab all three points.
Ake and Stones lacked the pace and verve to do the damage that Cancelo and Walker can do from the position.
Commentating the game for Sky Sports, Gary Neville said City need to address the full-back situation soon in the transfer market.
City's sudden shortage at full-back is all the more remarkable given that Guardiola spent over £200 million ($240m) on full-backs in the space of two years, signing Walker, Benjamin Mendy and Danilo in 2017, and Cancelo in 2019.
As City prepare to host RB Leipzig in their Champions League last-16 second leg, GOAL takes a look at the defenders Guardiola should target to solve this unexpected problem...
