How Man City plan to strengthen midfield ahead of transfer window closing

Manchester City are still hoping to provide a back-up for Fernandinho from within the current squad.

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The holding role in Pep Guardiola's team was identified as one of two key positions to improve - with Riyad Mahrez fulfilling the other role - and Jorginho heading a shortlist that also comprised Southampton's Mario Lemina and Real Madrid's Mateo Kovacic earlier in the summer.

However, the failure to land the Napoli midfielder after months of negotiations saw the club revise their strategy in a market the manager had unenthusiastically deemed 'expensive'.

Ilkay Gundogan, Aleks Zinchenko, Fabian Delph and Kevin De Bruyne are all considered players that could fill in for Fernandinho while Claudio Gomes and Douglas Luiz should also provide competition.

Gomes, signed from PSG this summer, came on for the final few seconds of the Community Shield win and signed for City under the impression that first-team opportunities would be available.

Despite struggling to make an impression on loan at Girona last season, 20-year-old Luiz caught Guardiola's eye on tour to the extent that the club are waiting to see if they can secure a work permit to keep the Brazilian in Manchester this season; a decision could be made this week.

City sources have already dismissed interest in high-profile players Miralem Pjanic, Julian Weigl, Thiago Alcantara and Kovacic, and it is expected that there will not be a major addition to the squad.

But the manager reiterated after the Community Shield win over Chelsea that they will keep looking for a 'special' option in the market until its closure on Thursday.

"We are trying [to sign someone]," he said. "We would like to find maybe one more because we don’t have two specific players to substitute Fernandinho.

"But, if he doesn’t come, there will not be anyone else."