I have this crazy hope that Gvardiol is going in to play CM and that Laporte will stay (Philips being the one to move on) - Plus if there's room a couple of attacking extras.
..................Ederson................. (Ortega)
...Stones ......Dias .........Ake ... (Walker/Akanji/Laporte)
...............Rodri Gvardiol.......... (Kovacic/Lewis)
Bernardo KDB Foden Grealish (Olise/Duko/Bobb/Palmer/McAtee)
....................Haaland.............. (Alvarez)
With Johnny Boulders showing in pre season that his hybrid role will continue this season and hearing that Josko can also play that role, i can see a one stay, one go situation happening once Josko settles.
To me, the only problem with what John does is that if he loses the ball or gets caught up field, it leaves gaps at the back, so i think Pep will play a back four so whenever one goes forward the rest spread out across the back for cover.
So with who we have now, i can see Pep picking this team:
.................Ederson.................
Stones...Dias...Ake...Gvardiol
...........Rodri.....Kovacic..........
Foden........KDB........Grealish
................Haaland..................
Ortega, Walker, Akanji, Bernardo, Phillips, Alvarez, Lewis, Gomez, Palmer, McAtee, Bobb