Was wondering how they do it so well and sure it’s been that way since Sheikh Mansour bought the club. At other big clubs there’s a first XI that’s going to play most weeks with some squad players on the fringes when fit whereas at City I’ve noticed that they could probably field 2 good starting XIs from one week to the next and wouldn’t struggle. Like sometimes you’ll see Stones and Ake in defence then another game it’s Dias and Gvardiol, sometimes Akanji plays there. Been like that for quite a while remembering when it was 4-4-2 under Mancini and Pellegrini having Aguero and Tevez up front with Dzeko and Balotelli before Negredo and Jovetic as back up. Whenever someone gets injured it’s barely even a problem and they seem to know how to manage big players really well, bit jealous as a United fan as whenever one player is dropped, it’s such a big deal.
Noticed that the formation also changes as well quite often, for example
3-2-4-1 vs Chelsea
3-4-2-1 vs Bournemouth
4-2-3-1 vs United
Their playstyle also limits the probability of injury and related crises, despite the small squad.
City are the best in the world at keeping possession. In the dog days of the season, they will happily shut the game down at 1-0.
They won’t commit men forward, but will also limiting the amount of “intense” running they have to do.
Pep also implements a training regime that runs through 2 cycles across the season, with each cycle peaking (in terms of player fitness) in winter and the end of season, when there are the most games.