Enzo Maresca has plenty of midfielders to choose from when deciding how to set up his Man City side.
Pep Guardiola’s former assistant has officially taken over at the Etihad following the Spaniard’s departure after 10 years.
The Italian joins after a few stints in English football, with Leicester City in the 2023-24 Championship and most recently Chelsea for a year and a half.
In both clubs, Maresca favoured the 4-2-3-1 as the base formation. Things would change in possession, varying to 3-2-5, 2-3-5 or 3-1-6 in rigid, positional fashion.
At Stamford Bridge, in fact, he used the 4-2-3-1 almost exclusively, in order to maximize Cole Palmer’s presence as a number 10. With the Foxes, the closest he had to that was Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who operated well dropping deep into the midfield line too. For this reason, he also used the 4-3-3 during his time at the King Power.
Ideal
Coming off great World Cup campaigns, Rodri’s and Elliot Anderson’s stocks couldn’t be higher. Both are pretty much guaranteed presences in the ideal starting XI.
The Englishman can perform multiple roles in midfield, but has been used to playing in a double pivot alongside Ibrahim Sangare at Nottingham Forest.
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Considering Maresca’s fondness of the 4-2-3-1, there’s a chance he leans on that to start things off. It would, however, require some adaptation from the Spaniard, who is used to playing as a single pivot.
This would leave an open spot in the number 10 role. Rayan Cherki had a better season than Phil Foden and could get the nod, despite a poor World Cup for France with reported disciplinary issues under Didier Deschamps.
We can also expect Jeremy Doku and Antoine Semenyo as locks for both wings.
A switch to Guardiola’s heavily used 4-1-4-1 from last season is also possible with the same group of players. Chreki himself has already played in this platform – though at times as a right-midfielder.
Technical
If Enzo Maresca is feeling a little more risky and daring, he could line his Man City midfield in a more technical fashion. Doku, Cherki and Foden together can play well in tight spaces and come up with solutions when there appears to be none available.
Mateo Kovacic, when in form and healthy, also excels in these contexts. He has great feet and showed glimpses in the World Cup knockout stages that his old self is still very much alive.
In this scenario, Rodri would have to do a little bit more dirty work to compensate. Would be a high-risk, high-reward type of configuration in specific situations.
May not be the most realistic one, though. Guardiola tried to increase central play with overloads down the middle in an attempt to reinvent his tactics.
There’s little evidence Maresca would do that based on his previous works. But he will have the players and the foundation to do so should he choose to – in his own way, of course.
Physical
It doesn’t seem to be Maresca’s main line of thinking either. But if his Man City side ever decide to lean on physicality, high/counter-press, constant movement and straight verticality, they have the players for it.
Anderson himself could take a step up with Rodri between the lines and Tijjani Reijnders would come into the XI. It would take them back to the 4-3-3/4-1-4-1 that Guardiola used a lot during his tenure as City boss.
Back-up
The Italian usually maintained his philosophy with alternate lineups at Chelsea – famously in the Conference League title run. Man City – as currently constructed – do have the depth and the traits to offer him a similar approach.
Nico Gonzalez would be in charge of performing the same role he usually does in Rodri’s absence.
Savinho plays mostly down the right, but can do a job on the left as well. The Brazilian is a good option to hold width, as Maresca likes, with either Nico O’Reilly or Rayan Ait Nouri being able to tuck inside in a line of five up front.
Foden had the best league season of his career acting as a right-attacking-midfielder in 2023-24, bagging 19 goals and dishing out eight assits in 35 games. With Matheus Nunes finding success as an overlapping full-back last year, Foden occupying the right-half-space could make for a good combination down that side.