Yaya Toure acknowledges that Manchester City need to come up with a new way of outsmarting their Premier League rivals.
While City's spending power is common knowledge, it has taken time for an expensively-assembled squad to gel and play to their potential.
They were able to do that last season, as they ended their long wait for top-flight title joy, with Roberto Mancini's side able to impose themselves on games and dominate from the off.
Opponents have, however, worked out how to nullify City's attacking threat this term, and the reigning champions, despite losing just once, have found the going a little tougher.
Toure feels they need to put a Plan B in place, with it important for them to be able to mix things up when looking to prevail in tight contests.
He told The Sun: "Whereas perhaps we caught a lot of teams by surprise last season, this year our opponents know how we play.
"Sometimes we have to change our system to try and break teams down. The other teams and players can analyse how we play, study our systems and styles and work out ways to stop us. Even sides who are near the bottom of the table are more than capable of making it difficult.
"A team that lost 4-0 against us last season will have learned and will change their tactics.
"They won't want to get beaten heavily again so they will pack men behind the ball and make it difficult for us to find a way through. But that's why I love football. There is always a challenge and always a puzzle to try and solve - and when you get past that it's very rewarding."
