Gab Marcotti

But the whole point of being a dominant team, of putting the contrast between City and, say, Arsenal, the way they've approached the league this season, or even Liverpool last year, who are obviously more attacking than... is that you minimize the chances against you, and you don't just rely on potentially outscoring the other team because you have better players and you're at home.

This whole concept, and I go back to this, of Pep Guardiola, control, control...

he's just not there yeah i and i'm wondering and is this squad construction tools a little bit because again you know the situation with stones you know the situation with ake

Josco Guardiola and Ruben Diaz are your only, you know, first-rate guys that you can rely on, and now they're hurt.

Yeah, and on Semenyo, as we record this, reportedly he's having a medical today.

We expect him to sign.

He has not signed.

But either way, the fact that they pursued him, as you just said, gives you an insight in what they're trying to do.

One of the things that's been suggested to me, which I think makes sense, is that Semenyo comes from a team that asks us forward to just press and press and press constantly.

He is one of the hardest working players, front players.

When I look at...

So City's front players, Erling Haaland does not press obsessively.

I mean, you can ask him to, but it's probably not what you want him to do.

Jeremy Doku does not.

Savinho doesn't do it well when he plays.

Schurke is new to the system.

Is this part of the thinking that maybe if they have guys who work harder up front, then it's less of an issue if I have Nico Reilly getting beat like he did against Chelsea at the weekend?

Yeah, I think there's a lot going on there.

We're going to go and break this down a little bit further on the Gavin Jules podcast and also getting to this idea that what you said, the Linder's effect.

Is this the direction European football is moving in?