Ederson, Walker, Stones, Laporte, Zinchenko, Rodri, De Bruyne, Foden, Torres, Sterling, Jesus.
That Manchester City team would win plenty of games in the Premier League. It is also a group of 11 players that Pep Guardiola may not be able to pick at the beginning of the season.
Just like three years ago, the Blues find themselves a victim of their success: having so many quality internationals means that they can only watch as their players go deep into major tournaments when the club would probably be more than happy if they instead had their feet up ahead of the new season.
In 2018, City had 11 players reach the quarter-finals of the World Cup. They currently have nine players at the European Championship plus another two at the Copa America with Brazil. A Spain-England final, coupled with Brazil progressing in their own backyard, would see nine of the 11 busy with their countries for another week-and-a-half.
Once again, this leaves pre-season planning less than ideal for Guardiola - a man who regularly bemoans the exhausting schedule that the players have to put up with yet also makes it clear he loves any player that cuts their holiday short early to help the cause.
FIFPro recommends five weeks of rest between seasons, with three weeks for holiday and two for pre-season training. Yet anybody making an international final this summer will have less than a month before the Community Shield kicks off the new campaign in English football. Even if City's players are back in time for Tottenham away on the opening day of the season, they will not be close to their peak.
When faced with this predicament in 2018, Guardiola gambled big and hit the jackpot.
He picked out Bernardo Silva as the man to boost the Blues in the opening weeks, dragging him across to New York for their pre-season tour despite the fact the playmaker had made it to the last-16 of the World Cup with Portugal. Despite having barely any rest, Bernardo was influential at the beginning of the campaign and over the course of a hugely successful season was the driving force in City winning a domestic treble as well as the Community Shield.
This summer could call for a similar decision. The manager has Riyad Mahrez and Joao Cancelo who should be relatively fresh, as well as Bernardo (if he stays) and Ruben Dias who were knocked out of the Euros at the weekend. He may also need one or a few of the players still involved with their national teams though, who can shrug off tiredness for the time being and give City the boost that they will need at the start of their season.
As Bernardo showed in 2018, that decision could be the difference between winning the Premier League or not.
