Journalist Sam Lee has questioned the formation Pep Guardiola used in Manchester City's recent 3-0 victory over Fulham.

As the Citizens currently sit 14 points clear in the Premier League and are now bombarded with a packed fixture schedule, Pep Guardiola rested a handful of players on Saturday evening.

This gave the manager an opportunity to try a slightly different formation. City played with three at the back against Fulham, while Joao Cancelo and Benjamin Mendy were pushed forward in wing-back roles.

Despite winning the game 3-0, it wasn’t a typical free-flowing performance, and The Athletic’s City correspondent Lee hopes they revert back to their usual style ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League tie.

In response to a City fan who said, “it wasn’t particularly brilliant, but rotation worked”, Lee said the following on The Athletic's discussion page.

“Yeah exactly, as long as he doesn’t stick with this and I doubt he will.”

Lee also went onto say that he hopes Guardiola doesn’t deploy this formation again.

GIVEMESPORT’s Tom Kelly says…

At this point in the season, City are now competing on four different fronts and it’s vital for Guardiola to rotate his side if the quadruple is something he’s striving towards.

Reflecting on their trip to Craven Cottage, it wasn’t a typical City performance that we expect to see from the league leaders. They took the lead through John Stones but their second and third goals ultimately resulted from Fulham’s mistakes.

With their round of 16 tie on Tuesday night and then their FA Cup quarter-final clash against Everton just four days later, Guardiola needs to explore new formations as he rotates his side towards the end of the season.

Although there may be some teething issues at the moment, it’s possible that we could see City play three at the back more frequently and especially against Premier League sides lower down the table.