Decisions, disputes, debate and picking the best Man City XI since the takeover - with one big catch

Who gets in your best Manchester City XI since the takeover if you can only have one player per nationality?

Welcome to the international break.

It's one of the times of the year when our Manchester City writers can't write about Manchester City games because there aren't any, so attention turns elsewhere. Over the last week, there has been comprehensive coverage of the season ticket issues for next season that has angered supporters as well as a look back at the dressing room under Roberto Mancini's Premier League winners and a tilt forward towards how likely summer signings are getting on.

Our two City writers were tasked for our Talking City podcast with coming up with the best City XI since the takeover - with a catch; only one player per country is allowed. That means one of Kevin De Bruyne or Vincent Kompany missing out, for example.

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Simon Bajkowski and Joe Bray run through the agonising thought processes behind their decisions below, and we'd love to get your shouts as well. Leave your best XIs in the comments if you reckon you can beat either of the teams our writers have come up with.

Simon Bajkowski

(4-3-3): Ederson, Zabaleta, Stones, Dias, Clichy, Rodri, De Bruyne, Toure, Balotelli, Sane, Haaland

I'll put the team first and then the thoughts behind it can follow. The first condition was playing in the formation that has been the best for City since the takeover: a Pep Guardiola 4-3-3.

The next was the goalkeeper. It surely comes down to either Joe Hart or Ederson, and as amazing as Hart was in his pomp Ederson just shades it for me - in part because of his nationality. Ignoring Hart keeps my options open for an English player where with Ederson I only really lose out on Fernandinho, Gabriel Jesus and Glauber Berti. However, no Fernandinho means the holding midfielder has to be Rodri so that in turn rules out picking David Silva.

Sticking with the midfield, the two players that I have most enjoyed watching are De Bruyne and Yaya Toure. Both men at their best can lay claim to being the best playmaker in the league and have come up with clutch moments for the Blues in the biggest games.

That of course means no Kompany, so where do you go in defence? I'd start with the man who achieved the impossible task of replacing Kompany in Ruben Dias - even if it means having to leave out Bernardo Silva - for the way he almost single-handedly transformed the defence when he arrived in 2020.

Listen to the latest episode of Talking City, where Simon and Joe talk through their teams and also cover the controversial season ticket price rises.

Alongside him, I've gone for John Stones. With apologies to Kyle Walker, Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling and the rest, Stones arrived as a poster boy for Guardiola's football, showed more balls than anyone in the room to fight back from nearly being sold and then achieved the most dribbles in a Champions League final since Lionel Messi.

With no Walker, I went for Pablo Zabaleta at right-back. This of course means no Sergio Aguero so I've managed to ignore all three of the players who have a statue outside the ground!

Zabaleta was an integral part of the side under three managers and is still loved by the fans, and on the opposite flank I went for Gael Clichy. His arrival from Arsenal was an important one in making City the dominant force in English football, and as a coach and pundit he and Thierry Henry are the best at articulating in simple terms what Guardiola wants from his teams.

In attack is where things get really difficult. Erling Haaland is an obvious choice to lead the line and I also went for Leroy Sane for his exciting role in the City side that racked up 198 Premier League points over two seasons.

With the last spot, and with so many ineligible players, I've shoehorned Mario Balotelli in in the hope that Guardiola could have turned him into a phenomenal wide forward. As Joe pointed out on the podcast though, Riyad Mahrez would have given more balance.

Agree with our teams? Let us know in the comments, and give us your XIs with one player per nationality.

Joe Bray

(Flexible 4-3-3): Ederson, Walker, Dias, Kompany, Ake; Rodri, Toure, Gundogan, Aguero, Haaland, Dzeko

Where Simon has gone for balance and thought about the formation, I've done the opposite, and generally tried to pick the 11 best players I could. Some positions have knock-on effects to others - for example, if you pick Ederson over Hart, you can't include Fernandinho, but then you have to put Rodri in holding midfield. But then you can't pick David Silva. And where Simon has picked De Bruyne to represent Belgium, I've gone for Kompany as he was potentially more influential as captain, however brilliant De Bruyne is.

Ederson is my pick in goal because he has been so transformative in his position, which allows Walker to be my English pick at right-back. There's an argument for Zabaleta, although a certain other Argentinian can't be left out for me. Alongside Kompany, I've chosen Dias. Imagine a Kompany-Dias partnership, that would surely be unbeatable as the best City centre-back combination we never got to see.

Left-back is quite an open pick with little competition when it comes to picking a unique nationality. Aleksandar Kolarov, Gael Clichy and Nathan Ake were my options, with Ake getting the nod purely for recency bias if anything else. And he's very good.

Rodri has to be in the side in midfield, even if that means leaving out Silva, and without De Bruyne I've plumped for the brilliant Toure and the enduring quality of Ilkay Gundogan. Both are the best of their nations to represent City, played vital roles in winning important trophies, and would offset the 'loss' of De Bruyne and Silva (and Foden to a lesser extent).

Up front is where the balance of my team is completely abandoned. The chance to put Sergio Aguero and Erling Haaland in the same team is too good to turn down, and I'm trusting their quality to overcome the lack of width in the side or obvious plan to supply them.

The 11th player was the hardest to pick - I could go with Mahrez because he's the only Algerian and offers some width, but we've established that there is no structure to this attack. So let's put Edin Dzeko in - he's got a great scoring record, was loved by fans, scored some big goals and will add to the chaos.

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