Inside the Manchester City dressing room this summer, there has been plenty of self-examination: questions about fatigue, fresh starts and what comes next in a landscape that no longer feels quite so familiar. A new era has arrived, with all the uncertainty that brings.
Expectation has been one of the subjects discussed in private, with players weighing up what should realistically be demanded of them now. Even across the final two campaigns, when Pep Guardiola’s team were no longer at their absolute peak and then began a rebuild that altered some of their tactical principles, City still qualified for the Champions League, lifted both domestic cups and pushed Arsenal until the final week of the title race.
So, no pressure, Enzo Maresca. That, it seems, is simply the standard now.
‘Sometimes you have to go through a year or two of not winning to get to the win. Maybe it will be different (for us), who knows? Maybe it won’t. The club deserves us to try.’
The sense is that City’s players are stepping into this next chapter fully aware of the risks as well as the possibilities. They have seen, at close quarters and not long ago, what can follow when a dominant figure begins to loosen his grip. This is new territory: compelling, unpredictable and intriguing, beginning on Sunday against Arsenal in the Community Shield in Cardiff.
Enzo Maresca’s appointment brings uncertainty, but also a sense of anticipation and intrigue
The Italian understands Manchester City’s standards as well as anyone after working on Pep Guardiola’s staff during the Treble-winning season
The Community Shield is silverware, and coaches tend to include it when listing their honours. Maresca will be no exception, even if its significance is ultimately viewed as limited.
Those who have been with the new manager during pre-season appeared ready for competitive action when beating Atletico Madrid 3-1 in Seoul last weekend, showcasing the sort of verve in the final third that the Italian has been preaching during hour-long sessions in the searing heat. He has been encouraged by steadily improving displays, believing it is vindicating the ideas being imparted during training.
They had been struggling to breathe in South Korea days earlier during a friendly against the K-League All Stars. Staff members remarked between themselves afterwards that half the team could barely cope with the heat, officially 40°C but feeling like 45.
Josko Gvardiol had to be propped up by a team-mate at one point before going down on his haunches. Staff watching from the stands kept cool with a handheld electric fan in each hand. Merely attending was sweat inducing, let alone playing.
There will be a school of thought that those conditions can accelerate fitness regimes and proof of that or otherwise will soon become evident. Maresca had to be creative with the timings of his sessions so as to best avoid the real extremities, wrestling with either early morning or evening starts at the Mokdong Stadium – lacking shade, home to second division football and, somewhat ironically, often an ice rink.
The winters are cold in that part of the world but much the opposite problem here, with Maresca plumping for 7pm training over 9am. The rationale was that players sleep so poorly in Asia due to the time difference that mornings were effectively redundant anyway. In the end, the difference in temperature appeared negligible.
To illustrate the obsession of the man now leading City, and who probably evokes memories of his predecessor, a thought popped into the head of Maresca before a training session open to the public in Hong Kong.
They would be running through how to press Inter in a friendly 24 hours later, working on team shape as he attempted to quickly implement his ideas. The idea that the opposition could be watching and taking notes did briefly percolate. That was until he realised that none of it matters.
Staff members remarked after a friendly against the K-League All Stars in Seoul that half the team could barely cope with the heat, officially 40°C but feeling like 45
Maresca opted for evening training sessions as players sleep so poorly in Asia due to the time difference that mornings were effectively redundant anyway
City’s red-eye arrived home on Monday morning and it has been a long wait for Maresca to welcome the entire squad back, with six only returning this week from the World Cup.
One of them, Rodri, is expected to be the most high-profile departure over the coming weeks and the City manager needs to reshape his leadership quartet, with only Ruben Dias and Erling Haaland left from last year.
They head for the Principality Stadium with questions over the make-up of the squad and how much change will take hold before the transfer window (or ‘window transfer’, as Maresca endearingly calls it) shuts. Uncertainty lingers as to how many go and how many join.
In that sense, the Maresca era beginning off the back of a major international tournament is not perfect, given that transfers are pushed back until after mandatory breaks.
The lone major signing so far, £116million Elliot Anderson, would fit the mould of this City or the last one, though, which points to a more seamless transition than perhaps occurs elsewhere.
‘When you change a manager and go for a new one, it’s good to go for a manager with a similar idea,’ Maresca said. ‘That way, with the players you have and the players you recruited, they more or less have the same style. Like with the Elliot one, even though I was not here, he still fits in.’
Players are describing the ideas as similar but different. They will defend differently, for starters. There will be less tactical tinkering, more wedded to the principal concept. ‘What he wants is really clear,’ said Nico Gonzalez. ‘The structure is really clear.’
If Anderson fits effortlessly, work is going on behind the scenes to make sure Gianluigi Donnarumma does as well, now wearing the No1 shirt after James Trafford’s move to Leeds United. Distribution is not the finest part of his game and City are looking at solutions to help their goalkeeper contribute on the ball and not ask for anything overly elaborate.
The lone major signing so far, £116million Elliot Anderson, would fit the mould of this City or the last one, though, which points to a more seamless transition than perhaps occurs elsewhere
Gianluigi Donnarumma has been doing extra work at the end of sessions with coaches Richard Wright and Michele De Bernardin, relentlessly clipping 30 or 40-yard balls towards wide areas
The real stuff begins on Sunday and Maresca has no time to waste. For him, silverware is silverware
One of those ideas is to build up with three defenders rather than two, giving more security for possible mistakes and more options when passing.
Donnarumma has been doing extra work at the end of sessions with coaches Richard Wright and Michele De Bernardin, relentlessly clipping 30 or 40-yard balls towards wide areas. Maresca had his head in his hands when one simple pass was given straight to Atletico inside City’s own third on Sunday. Typically, Donnarumma bailed himself out.
Extra sessions were part of Maresca’s remit when he was assistant to Guardiola during the Treble campaign. Notably he worked on specifics with Rico Lewis and Phil Foden and the latter is partial to games with the manager after sessions have ended now.
‘From the first week, the messaging was very direct, very honest,’ Lewis said. It needs to be. The real stuff begins on Sunday and Maresca has no time to waste. For him, silverware is silverware.
