Enzo Maresca has moved into the Manchester City manager's office previously used by Pep Lijnders rather than the one Pep Guardiola occupied, one of his first decisions after taking charge of the club.
The choice reflects the reset Maresca has been describing to his players during pre-season in Asia. It follows a lengthy dinner with Guardiola in Barcelona the day before Maresca moved to Manchester, where the two shared a bottle or two of Sassicaia wine and Guardiola talked him through the characteristics of the City players, including how individuals react to being left out of the team.
Maresca said the meal was useful, adding that he likes to assess things for himself but valued Guardiola's opinions after his long spell at the club. He said Guardiola would be available if needed but had to enjoy his holiday and relax, so the plan was not to call him constantly, and that he would have to judge the right moments to pick up the phone.
Maresca was an assistant to Guardiola during City's Treble-winning season before leaving to manage Leicester City and later Chelsea, both spells ending in success. Guardiola has told his successor to speak freely in public, and the appointment had the backing of both Guardiola and City football director Txiki Begiristain.
Preparing in punishing heat in Seoul
Speaking from the seventh floor of Seoul's Four Seasons hotel, where his phone was receiving government alerts about heat that officially felt like 45 degrees Celsius, Maresca reflected on a 3-1 win over Atletico Madrid before City flew home, plus an earlier win over the K-League All Stars. He had slept until 4am and was on his third espresso of the morning.
Training had grown sharper through the week as temperatures eased slightly in South Korea. With key players including Jeremy Doku, Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki rejoining the squad in Manchester this week, City turn their attention to the Community Shield against Arsenal on Sunday. Rodri is due back on Friday, though a move to Barcelona could be finalised by then.
Haaland's role without the captaincy
Haaland was among the first to contact Maresca once his appointment was confirmed in the summer, having stayed in touch with him since 2023. He will form a quarter of a leadership group at City but will not be first-choice captain, a decision Maresca linked to the striker's habit of scoring too many goals.
Maresca explained that at Leicester and Chelsea he had a rule that the captain had to come to the bench for instructions whenever the team scored, joking that this would be a problem if Haaland held the armband. He said that during the game in Seoul, Ruben Dias had come over to the bench, noting there is always something to adjust even a couple of minutes into a match.
Dinner, initiation songs and a growing staff
Maresca also described an initiation dinner a few nights earlier at which every member of staff except him performed a song, declaring that they were all bad. Analyst Javi Molina sang Frank Sinatra's My Way, which Maresca said was a disaster given how difficult the song is, while goalkeeping coach Michele De Bernardin was, in his view, the best of the night.
Englishman Danny Walker, part of Maresca's staff, previously worked as an academy coach at City before Maresca took charge of the Elite Development Squad during the Covid period. The two were paired together after Begiristain told Maresca he could not bring in his own assistant, even though the assistant in question, Marcos Alvarez, now on Maresca's staff, was Catalan. Maresca joked about Walker's food habits, saying breakfast together means beans on toast and dinner means a beer.
Maresca said Walker is valuable for overseeing extra work with players after sessions, alongside a wider staff that includes Willy Caballero from Argentina, two Italian coaches, one English coach and three Spanish coaches, allowing the group to cover multiple languages, with Maresca himself speaking French.
Studying man-to-man marking
Maresca said he spent part of the six months between leaving Chelsea and taking over at City studying teams that play man-to-man marking rather than watching football generally, calling it a growing trend at the highest level. He cited Newcastle United's 6-1 win over Barcelona and Atalanta's 6-1 win over Bayern Munich last season as examples of underdogs conceding heavily when using the approach against bigger teams, and referenced Chelsea's attempt to play man-to-man against Paris Saint-Germain in March, which he said backfired.
Maresca pointed to Paris Saint-Germain as a model for adaptability, with runners carrying the ball, and suggested Antoine Semenyo could thrive under similar instructions, something he said Semenyo had already shown in Seoul. Maresca also said he had spoken with renowned Italian basketball coach Ettore Messina, formerly of the San Antonio Spurs, exchanging ideas a few months ago.
Set pieces, AI classes and family life
Maresca said improving City's set-piece record is on the agenda but not a priority, noting that Arsenal rely heavily on set pieces and that they have become a significant factor in the Premier League. During his time away from management he also completed two AI masterclasses, one on general use of the technology and communicating with younger players, and another on its application to the technical side of football, though he joked he still could not explain the basics of it.
Since returning to Manchester, Maresca has found his favourite Italian restaurant, Salvi's, has closed, with Vero Moderno, often frequented by Gianluigi Donnarumma, becoming a new haunt for staff meals. He said he would prefer to live in the city centre like Guardiola but that moving to Cheshire makes more sense for his family, which includes four children under 13 who all have English accents, and that a 7pm family dinner at home is treated as sacrosanct.
Maresca said he expects comparisons to Guardiola after his first 10 games, without noting that Guardiola won all 10 of those matches, but said it does not add pressure. He said he has repeatedly called Guardiola the best manager in the world over the last 20 years, and that when asked if following him is an impossible job, he said it may be, but it is also a privilege.
