For all that his team's travails might be a quite literal head scratcher for Pep Guardiola, the why of Manchester City's travails is as remarkably straightforward as the what. There is nothing about this great crisis,

In the last two summers, City have postponed much of the rebuild; two of the six recruits in that time are now in the band of 30-somethings. And while Guardiola said it was harder to be stable defensively without a quartet of centre backs and two holding midfielders, arguably he only has one: Mateo Kovacic does not covet that role.