Pep Guardiola promises to delve into his tactical playbook to solve Manchester City’s injury crisis ahead of the derby.

Guardiola, who insisted City are performing well despite seven defeats in 10, ruled Manuel Akanji out of the meeting with Manchester United – leaving him with three defenders available.

Rico Lewis is suspended and the City boss is considering starting either Matheus Nunes or Bernardo Silva at full-back.

“We are thinking about what to do with the situation,” Guardiola said. “Maybe a winger has to play as a full-back or Matheus – or maybe we play five at the back.”

The 53-year-old admitted his squad of 20 outfield players is too small as City look to strengthen in the January window.

And Guardiola has urged City supporters, who booed the team after home games against Tottenham and Feyenoord, to offer their unequivocal support to the Premier League champions, who are eight points behind leaders Liverpool.

Pep Guardiola vows to delve into his tactical playbook to solve Man City’s injury crisis

Rico Lewis is suspended and the City manager is considering starting Bernardo Silva at full-back

The 53-year-old admitted that his squad of 20 outfield players is too small

“I know our fans are sad and I completely understand, that we lost maybe seven or eight games in a year in some seasons and now we’ve done it in a month and a half,” he added. “All I do is encourage them to support them until the end because they deserve it.

‘It has made me reflect that with this calendar you need a squad of 25-30 players. It will be more difficult financially for the club but we will play the Club World Cup this summer, three weeks before the start of the Premier League again, and maybe we need to have a deeper squad.

“When people ask what’s the problem, it’s the schedule. It’s not the training, not the doctors, not the physios, not the players, not how they eat or how they rest. There’s only one problem: the schedule.

“When we won the treble or four in a row, we had one, two or three injuries and were so solid.”