Pep Guardiola only spent a quarter of an hour working on his tactics to beat Manchester United in their own back yard a few months ago.
Manchester City went there with two false nines, Riyad Mahrez and Kevin De Bruyne, and headed back across town having comfortably seen off their rivals. A 15-minute sermon on the morning of that Carabao Cup semi-final was enough to drill down into specific instructions.
They had played similarly before on occasion, perhaps most notably at Real Madrid in last year's Champions League, but in January, with both senior strikers recovering from injury or coronavirus, the need was more pronounced.