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It might seem that Pep Guardiola has misunderstood the five substitutes rule. In Manchester City's last two games, their coach only put five outfield players on the bench. Perhaps Guardiola's paradox is that the coach who appears to have the most resources at his disposal also appears to have the fewest footballers.

And when a lack is due to injury, there are six absences: more than usual at the Etihad Stadium, fewer than at some clubs where the bench is still a little fuller. Of those six, Jeremy Doku and Jack Grealish shouldn't be sidelined for long. Kevin De Bruyne has already been out for longer than City expected and Guardiola is unsure when he will be back. Kyle Walker also seems to be increasingly susceptible to injury. Oscar Bobb has yet to play this season. Rodri will no longer play in it.

In other words: Guardiola may not have all of his substitutes for a long time. Now he is approaching a game where he had promised to bring in the reserve team. “In the next round, I tell you now, I will be playing against the second team,” he said after beating Watford in the Carabao Cup; Admittedly, before receiving a demanding draw at Tottenham.

However, he now only has half a second team. If that suggests newcomers Nico O'Reilly and James McAtee, along with second-choice goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, will be the first names on the team sheet on Wednesday, Guardiola will need to find eight others to accompany them.

His plight is unlikely to elicit sympathy. Not if it's not a choice partly because he prefers to operate with small squads, or if a £42m new addition to Rodri's position, namely Kalvin Phillips, is among the players on loan. Or if his spending at City is over £1bn. Or if the resources still available to him often cost high fees and are paid very well. There is no quantity in the city, but there is definitely quality. They only have one specialist striker, but an Erling Haaland might be preferable to the four or five centre-forwards that some of his colleagues can call upon.

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And yet Guardiola has yet to decide how to use resources that are at once meager and magnificent. “We have to take care of ourselves,” he said. “Good sleep, drinks, good food, lots of sleep, training and rest. We are who we are. I would like to have everyone, that is not the position. We are few, few people. We have to do what we have to do. I don't know if against Spurs I'll be thinking, 'Maybe a few players from the academy.' “If the players are fine, they will play against Spurs, but if they have doubts, I won't take any risks against Spurs, that's for sure,” he said.

His decisions reflect the dynamic of the team. The win over Watford is the only game in which Haaland did not start this season. The Norwegian has played every minute of the Premier League so far. The decision not to replace the retired Julian Alvarez makes him even more important. The early rumors, meanwhile, are that City are unlikely to buy in January to fill the void left by Rodri. “We also have good players who can play in this position,” said Manuel Akanji, naming Mateo Kovacic and Ilkay Gündogan “or” John Stones, Rico Lewis and himself.

City are usually well equipped with attacking midfielders. But with four of them out, Guardiola's bench against Southampton on Saturday consisted of two defenders, Stones and Nathan Ake, and two young players, O'Reilly and McAtee. This would make Gündogan possibly the only potential game-changer. City being City City, their games often don't need to be changed, but in four consecutive away games, with Bournemouth, Sporting Lisbon and Brighton, that may be different.

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A feature of Guardiola's management is a penchant for remaining loyal to his core players; Only Sean Dyche may be more reticent about seeking a replacement. The theory was that the rule change from three to five substitutions would benefit the bigger clubs. The City manager has only made five changes in two league games so far this season.

Had he bought additional players, and considering how difficult it is to find those with more talent than his regular staff, they might simply have been replacements. However, it is also notable that City made a transfer profit of over £100 million last summer. If one theory is that they are stockpiling funds to avoid possible penalties while their century-old Premier League charges are levied, one possibility is that they were short of players. It's a view rarely expressed over the last 16 years, that perhaps City should have spent more.