Enzo Maresca has challenged Manchester City to improve their intensity after a third straight Premier League defeat left them six points behind Arsenal.
City lost 3-1 at Nottingham Forest on Saturday after Liam Delap scored twice against his former club. Maresca said his players failed to match Forest’s commitment in the first half and were repeatedly beaten in challenges.
“Today I think [the problem] has been general,” Maresca said. “It’s not about one player. In the first half we lost all the duels, all the contacts. Against this team, that is fighting relegation, if you don’t match them … it’s something we need to understand.”
He added: “You need desire and intensity to win second balls and duels. You require intensity or you struggle and we didn’t match their intensity. The second and third goals are copy and paste, lost duels first in the middle of pitch then at the edge of the box.”
City had won their first seven league games of the season but have now lost to Aston Villa, Brighton and Forest. They remain second, although Arsenal’s victory over Hull has opened a six-point gap at the top.
Maresca said the defeats had come despite City having more possession and creating more chances, but accepted that the team had areas to address during the international break.
“We know we need to improve things and avoid this kind of game,” he said.
Forest had gone into the match in the relegation zone and without a league win since April. Their victory lifted them out of the bottom three and sent Manchester United into it.
Jair Cunha gave Forest an early lead after taking the ball from Josko Gvardiol and finding the net in the sixth minute. Delap then doubled the advantage in the 18th minute, running through City’s defence before finishing.
Jeremy Doku helped City pull one back after the break. His cross was deflected towards Rayan Cherki, who scored with a shot into the top corner.
Forest secured the points in the 74th minute when Delap finished a counterattack. The striker had scored only once in his first eight games since joining from Chelsea, but his two goals offered Forest a boost after a difficult start under Oliver Glasner.
The Forest manager praised his team’s defensive work and discipline, even though he felt they had played better football in other matches.
“How passionately we defended, how tactically smart we defended, it was one of our better games,” Glasner said.
He added: “Of course, you can just defend but you also need to go forward and this is what we did today in the right moments.”
City have now conceded three goals to a team that began the day in the bottom three for the first time since September 2019. Maresca said he was still getting to know his players after taking over from Pep Guardiola this summer.
“It’s a learning journey,” he said. “We know what we do well but we need to understand what we are not doing well and try to improve it.”
