The man with the biggest job in the world next season has to be Enzo Maresca.
He is tasked with replacing a giant of a man in Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. Maresca’s City played their first pre-season game against Inter Milan last weekend, essentially a warm-up session for the boys that went to penalties at the end.
On Wednesday, they faced the K-League All Stars in Seoul, where Rayan Ait-Nouri, Tijjani Reijnders and Divin Mubama scored in a game that City controlled very well.
A lot of the old patterns that characterised the side under Guardiola was evident. City moved the ball quickly around the pitch and created passing combinations that sought to create space for the wingers on the flanks.
Rayan Ait-Nouri, who started as a left winger, and Antoine Semenyo were tasked with providing the width in the first half, and the former scored just nine minutes in, while the latter assisted the second goal for Tijjani Riejnders, after Kim Dae-Won had swiftly equalised for the K-League All Stars.
In his post-match interview Maresca was a bit more solemn than the usually affable Guardiola, and he said City’s 3-1 win mattered even though it was only a pre-season game.
“For us the result is always important, even if it is a friendly game – but the most important thing is to see the effort of the players,” Maresca said.
“Also, compared to the last game in some aspects we did some things better.”
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Midfielder Nico Gonzalez said the team were familiar with Maresca’s ideas and that they were similar to what they had under Guardiola.
“I think the idea is clear,” he said. “We try to arrive to the wingers and then we have a lot of quality on the wing, so they can do 1 vs 1 all the time.
“I think the main idea is the same. We want to win the ball back as quick as possible and have the ball. Then there’s some things that change, but the main idea is the same.”
