RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Football tactics correspondent Published 14 August 2026, 06:16 BST Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has no easy task following Pep Guardiola's impressive 10-year act.
For many, his appointment suggests a continuation in tactical approach.
But Maresca, despite clearly being inspired by his former mentor, has his own style and one which we have started to see emerge across City's pre-season.
To understand Maresca's City we need to provide some context about Guardiola's.
Guardiola, by some, is mistakenly thought to be strictly married to a singular approach. While Guardiola had principles he stuck to throughout his career, he did not stick to one system.
These principles included keeping as much of the ball as possible, as far away from his team's goal and as close to the opponent's goal. His game was also founded on the basis of positional play.
Domenec Torrent, a long-time assistant of Guardiola's, offered a nice definition of positional play, describing it as "how you place yourself in relation to others on the field when you have the ball, and where you should be so that you can continue pressing when you lose it".
The coach implements tactics based on the positions of players in the hope of giving their team an advantage.
The end of Torrent's definition highlights another key Guardiola principle, the idea of good rest defence, referring to team-mates behind the ball when their team attacks, ready to defend counter-attacks.
Maresca's City also embody these principles, evident by their 64% possession in their first game against Inter Milan.
On the ball, players in Maresca's set-up play in clearly defined positions rather than moving around the pitch freely. It is obvious the Italian, like Guardiola, is a champion of positional play.
So we have seen Maresca's City leave four or five players – the three defenders and the holding midfielders – behind the ball whilst they attack, ensuring the team maintain a good 'rest defence'.
On the ball, Maresca sets City up in a 3-2-2-3 shape, a shape he used while managing Chelsea.
This rather rigid positional style of play keeps three defenders in the first line, capable of playing with the ball, while being able to cover the width of the pitch defensively.
In front of them, two midfielders help progress the ball, screen the defence, and counter-press quickly if the ball is lost.
In that pairing, we have seen Maresca give licence to one midfielder to contribute to the attack at times – most recently Tijjani Reijnders, linked with a move away, with Mateo Kovacic sitting at the base of midfield.
Ahead of this 3-1 or 3-2 base, wingers are asked to stay high and wide, resisting the urge to leave their position. This is arguably the important part of Maresca's system at City so far.
Nico Gonzalez, speaking after a gruelling game in the heat against K-League All-Stars, provided valuable confirmation.
"I think the idea is clear," he said. "We try to arrive to the wingers. We have a lot of quality in wingers."
In Guardiola's final season, City often used wingers in a narrow fashion, something he explained as being a result of the quality of the players he had available.
But Maresca's system looks to return to using wingers wide – a throwback to the work of Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane in 2017.
Guardiola's friend and journalist Marti Perarnau spoke to the former City coach about his use of wide wingers during the 2016-17 season.
As noted in Perarnau's book, The Pep Revolution, Guardiola said: "It's a difficult process. You can't just talk to [the wingers] and expect everything to happen.
"My first challenge is to convince [the wingers]. Just stay there on the wing, stay wide. Bide your time, be patient and your moment will come.
"Then, when you do get your chance, think about it, how many opponents am I going to have to get past?
"We've come up with this whole strategy so that you, the winger, only have to dribble past one man and sometimes there will be nobody in your way. On the other hand, if you stop paying attention and drift into the middle, how many will you have to get past? Four!"
Guardiola, of 10 years ago, perfectly describes the logic and strategy behind Maresca's current system, and one that still works.
Across pre-season, Antoine Semenyo, stationed on the flank, was arguably City's standout player, receiving the ball with time and space to run at his full-back. These situations commonly resulted in him arriving close to the box, cutting it back for a forward to tap the ball in, behind the opposition's defence.
For the players behind the winger, the game is simplified into looking to find this repeatable situation.
Previous image Next image Slide 1 of 3 , Screen grab showing City's wing play and cut-back for a goal scored against Atletico Madrid in pre-season. , City find Semenyo on the flank, isolated against his full-back, in a large amount of space End of image gallery How Maresca uses the centre of the pitch As heavy as this approach is on dominating through the winger, this does not mean the players infield don't play a valuable role.
If opponents double up on dangerous wingers, the logic is that space will open up inside. This is where attackers comfortable in small spaces, like Phil Foden and Rayan Cherki, may be able to impact games.
Maresca has asked Josko Gvardiol to move from left-back to a left attacking-midfield position when City have the ball, helping form the box shape in midfield.
Both he and Nico O'Reilly have shown an impressive ability to contribute to goals in the final third starting at full-back before arriving into the box. This is a pattern that we are likely to see from City this season.
Out of possession is where we see the biggest changes from Maresca when compared to his time at Chelsea.
At Chelsea, Maresca mainly used a man-to-man press high up the pitch. In pre-season we have seen City defend high up the pitch but in a more zonal fashion – something City did last season.
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