Guardiola shuffles the pack for Plymouth FA Cup clash | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has made 11 changes to his City starting XI for Saturday's FA Cup fifth round tie with Plymouth Argyle.

No player that started Wednesday night's Premier League win at Tottenham Hotspur will begin this clash with the Championship strugglers.

Brazilian defender Vitor Reis will make his home debut, while Rico Lewis, Nico O'Reilly, James McAtee and Phil Foden are the Academy graduates in the line-up.

They're surrounded by a wealth of experience and title-winning nous all over the pitch.

Victory would see us into the quarter-finals for the seventh successive season, with Pep Guardiola hunting his third FA Cup trophy.

Plymouth have been the competition's standout giant killers this season having already eliminated Brentford and Liverpool.

Teams

CITY XI: Ortega Moreno, Lewis, Reis, Ake, O’Reilly, Gundogan, De Bruyne (C), McAtee, Bernardo, Grealish, Foden

Subs: Ederson, Dias, Marmoush, Haaland, Doku, Nico, Gvardiol, Savinho, Nunes

WATCH: Guardiola: Every game is a final for us now

Tactics

Stefan Ortega Moreno will be protected by a back four led by the experience of Nathan Ake.

Ake is joined at centre-back by Vitor Reis, while Rico Lewis will start at right-back and Nico O'Reilly at left-back - although both will move into midfield on occasion.

Ilkay Gundogan and captain Kevin De Bruyne will be in midfield, with Bernardo Silva, James McAtee and Jack Grealish all operating in the attacking spaces.

That likely leaves Phil Foden in the false nine role, but you'd have to anticipate a fluid formation as the game develops.

Potted history

Despite being two clubs with long, long histories in the game, there's only ever been 20 competitive meetings between City and Plymouth.

This is just the second ever FA Cup meeting between the clubs, with City winning a fifth round tie at Maine Road 3-1 in 1987/88 previously.

City have won the last five meetings in all competitions, but this is the first match between the sides since February 1989 in the second tier (2-0).

In total, we've been successful 11 times against Argyle, with four draws and five defeats.

WATCH: City's memorable FA Cup fifth round moments

Match stats

●      We have won their last 18 FA Cup games against sides from a lower division by an aggregate score of 69-9, since losing 1-0 at Wigan Athletic in the 2017-18 fifth round.

●      Plymouth have had 44 previous FA Cup ties against top-flight opponents, progressing from just four of these. However, two of those have come this season with the Pilgrims seeing off Brentford in the third round and Liverpool in the fourth.

●      Since his debut in the competition in January 2016, no player has been involved in more FA Cup goals (first round onwards) than Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne (26 – 9 goals, 17 assists). The Belgian netted the winner at Leyton Orient in the last round.

●      Having beaten Brentford and Liverpool in the third and fourth round of the FA Cup this season, Plymouth are looking to become the first team from outside the top-flight to eliminate Premier League opposition in three consecutive rounds since Wigan in 2017-18. The Latics beat Manchester City 1-0 in the fifth round back then.