Manchester City will welcome Manchester United to the Etihad this weekend with Pep Guardiola battling a defensive crisis.

Injury will seemingly rule out John Stones, Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji while Rico Lewis is suspended following his red card at Crystal Palace last weekend. It means City will only be able to call on Kyle Walker, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol as recognised senior defenders.

Guardiola spoke in his pre match press conference about potentially doing something different and asking a midfielder to play out of position at full back - he cited Mathues Nunes - or perhaps operating with a back five and attack minded wing backs.

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"I don't know what I have to do," Guardiola said. "Maybe some winger has to play as a full-back or Matheus can play as a full-back, or maybe can play five at the back with wing-backs as wingers."

With City desperately short of results and Walker and Gvardiol looking short of form in recent weeks, creating a central three either side of Dias and matching United's shape seems a logical step. The issue is who can fill in. Nunes could conceivably do a job on the left and perhaps Bernardo Silva would be the best stand-in on the right.

That would allow for the control of Matteo Kovacic and Ilkay Gundogan with the creativity of Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne behind Erling Haaland.

Phil Foden has only just recovered full fitness following illness and was on the bench against Juventus while Jeremy Doku and Savinho could also offer gamechanging options off the bench. Ederson is likely to remain in goal.

City predicted XI: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Gvardiol; Bernardo, Kovacic, Gundogan, Nunes; Grealish, De Bruyne, Haaland