How does Manchester City’s squad fit with Enzo Maresca’s style of play?

When discussing Manchester City’s future with player representatives this summer, Hugo Viana has been stressing that the football is not going to change, because new manager Enzo Maresca shares the same philosophy as Pep Guardiola. He has been appointed to continue the Catalan’s work.

Viana, City’s director of football, has had to field these questions because there will inevitably be uncertainty following the departure of Guardiola, who stamped his footballing ideals all over the club and set incredibly high standards during his decade in charge.

Maresca himself has already referenced the problems experienced by Manchester United and Arsenal after they said goodbye to Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, respectively, but he is determined to keep City at the top.

The Italian has watched every City match from last season since learning that he would be chosen to replace Guardiola — the Catalan informed the club shortly after the Carabao Cup final victory at the end of March.

Maresca has his own ideas and is expected to put his own stamp on the team; sources close to the squad, speaking anonymously to protect relationships like others referenced in this article, have identified attacking set pieces as one area that could be improved upon compared with Guardiola’s last couple of seasons, and he showed during his time at Chelsea that he could inspire fine performances in big games. The Club World Cup final against Paris Saint-Germain and a 3-0 victory over Barcelona last December are two high-profile examples.

And sources who have been part of Guardiola’s setup at City believe Maresca is indeed well matched, although perhaps more closely aligned to what might be deemed the ‘traditional’ City approach — rather, the kind of football that the team played for much of the past five years, but not necessarily the kind they moved towards last season.

Then, Guardiola adopted a comparatively more direct approach, in step with the Premier League’s shift towards man-to-man marking, which demands physical prowess and, at times, a direct style of play. Sources in City’s football department acknowledge that having Gianluigi Donnarumma and Abdukodir Khusanov meant that playing out from the back was more difficult, and as a result they went longer.

The two players also bring significant upsides: Khusanov’s pace and Donnarumma’s ability one-against-one help thwart the big chances that opponents can have by winning the ball back high up the pitch. Those trade-offs help explain City’s shift in style.

While Guardiola asked Bernardo Silva and Rodri to dictate the build-up by taking as many touches as they saw fit, the squad changed around them. Over the past two years, City have signed players capable of dribbling past opponents, such as Savinho, Tijjani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rayan Cherki, Antoine Semenyo and Omar Marmoush, while Donnarumma and Khusanov brought their own decisive qualities. The team has been built for new challenges, not passing the ball as well as they had done previously.

Those working in the setup insist City’s football was a big step away from how they played with a false nine between 2020 and 2022 and even the early Erling Haaland years, including the treble-winning season in 2022-23.

Maresca was at the club as Guardiola’s assistant that year, and his work at Leicester City in particular — the job he took for the 2023-24 season — was a very possession-oriented approach.

If it were possible to keep relying on that style in the Premier League these days, then, simply, Guardiola would have done so throughout last season, and Maresca would do so in the future.

But Guardiola had to adapt and Maresca will do too — and that is something that was on display during his time at Chelsea.

He now has the opportunity to mould his approach further according to the players available to him at City and how the opposition obliges his team to play.

Sources close to Maresca highlight that, while he has traditionally been reluctant to play long balls from defence, he too was becoming more open to that in his time as Chelsea manager, due to opponents pressing high and man-to-man — something he himself likes to do when his team do not have the ball.

Maresca’s football, fundamentally, is based on finding the free man and creating numerical superiorities in different areas of the pitch, and the City players are well used to that after their time with Guardiola.

But there is flexibility and, although he has previously insisted on his goalkeepers playing out from the back with short passes — saying they would be benched if they did not do it — he is not so wedded to it that it is regarded as the only option.

“Sometimes you have to go short, sometimes you have to go long — it depends a little bit also on what the opponents do,” Maresca said last week. “But you have to adapt and I think it’s a nice weapon with Gigio and Erling as a No 9. It’s also a nice weapon because not all the teams have these kinds of players who are good in combination, but they can not be the only solution; we need to find more solutions.”

Those players, in particular, are different profiles to the kind of goalkeeper and striker he has generally worked with, providing the opportunity, or indeed obligation, to adapt. In other areas, things look ready-made.

Maresca has always asked central defenders to have a lot of the ball during build-up, looking for them to spot opportunities to play around the opposition’s press depending on how they move, and that will suit Josko Gvardiol, in particular.

Maresca likes to use three defenders and two midfielders when his teams play out from the back, with the fourth defender pushing up into attack, either on the wing or in an attacking midfield role.

There is potential for Khusanov to play right-back, a position City are looking to strengthen. Maresca had been very keen to sign Malo Gusto from Chelsea, as the Frenchman is seen to have the right blend of attacking and defensive attributes, as well as physicality and dynamism. Gusto has been priced out of a move, though, and whether City bring in a new right-back or not, using Khusanov to effectively act as a right-sided centre-back when in possession could maximise his defensive abilities, keep passing fairly simple and allow him to drive up the pitch, as he did well at times last season.

That is something that would surely suit Nico O’Reilly down to the ground, as the City academy graduate has himself shown the right blend of attacking and defensive attributes, as well as physicality. He has been a goal threat when arriving into the box to meet crosses and he attacks the spaces around the edge of the box, too, rather than playing in them like City’s other academy players tend to do.

According to sources familiar with City’s transfer plans, the club are considering starting O’Reilly in midfield next season, depending on how the window plays out, and that would therefore mean other options starting at left-back and, presumably, taking up roles in the attack. That could suit Gvardiol or Ait-Nouri.

Ait-Nouri signed for City last summer but his season was disrupted by injuries and he missed several weeks while at the Africa Cup of Nations with Algeria. He was also frustrated by a lack of opportunities towards the end of the season but is said to be hopeful of a new start under Maresca. The former Wolverhampton Wanderers defender looks extremely comfortable in the middle of the pitch and could be highly valuable to Maresca if he finds his feet.

In midfield, the departure of Bernardo Silva allows City to further embrace the current Premier League dynamics, and by bringing in Elliot Anderson, a highly mobile possession-winner who always looks to get on the ball, they have a player who appears perfectly suited to the demands of the modern English game and the kind of all-action midfielder that Maresca used at Chelsea, in Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez. If Rodri were to leave, then that change would only be accelerated.

One interesting area could relate to Haaland, if Maresca wants the Norway striker to become more involved in City’s overall play, which he has asked of Jamie Vardy and Nicolas Jackson at Leicester and Chelsea. That is something Haaland did at times under Guardiola, although he adds huge value by staying on the last line of the defence, pinning defenders back and creating spaces for others.

Haaland is probably not a typical Maresca striker in that sense, but Guardiola himself had to adapt when the Norwegian signed in 2022, having to move away from a technical false nine who dropped deep to give the team overloads in the attacking half. It took around two-thirds of Haaland’s debut season for things to click into gear — and that was the campaign when Maresca was working with Guardiola.

He has taken the reins now largely because City believe he is part of a very small group of coaches — also including Roberto De Zerbi and Vincent Kompany — who are capable of continuing Guardiola’s work with little disruption.

The City that Guardiola left behind, in terms of style and personnel, is different to the vast majority of his time in charge. How Maresca interprets that and takes it on will be one of the biggest subplots of the Premier League season.