Get the biggest City transfer window stories, pre-season news and updates delivered straight to your inbox It was something of a surprise to see Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo and Nathan Ake play 45 minutes of Manchester City's first friendly on Tuesday.
The trio had only returned to training the previous day, and hadn't been expected to feature against Preston at all, let alone play the first half.
In an ideal world, those senior players wouldn't have been needed at all. As would be anticipated from a first friendly, there was a completely different outfield team in the second half, with plenty of academy youngsters getting the chance to impress in the second half and give Dias and co.
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