Maresca Steps Into Guardiola’s Shadow at Manchester City
After a decade of Pep Guardiola turning Manchester City into a trophy machine, the Etihad now belongs to Enzo Maresca. The banners, the memories and the standards all remain. The man in the dugout does not.
Guardiola walked away in May with a domestic double as his parting gift, beating Arsenal in the League Cup final and then Maresca’s former club Chelsea in the FA Cup. Those two pieces of silverware took his City haul to 20 trophies: six Premier League titles, three FA Cups, five League Cups, a Champions League and a legacy that will stalk whoever followed.
That man is Maresca, once Guardiola’s assistant in 2022-23, now charged with replacing the most successful manager in the club’s history. The shoes could hardly be bigger.
A New Era – And A New Spine
Change is not confined to the touchline. City’s dressing room has been ripped open and rewired.
John Stones, a cornerstone of Guardiola’s build-up play, has gone to Inter. Bernardo Silva, captain and heartbeat, has joined Real Madrid. Both left on free transfers, ending glittering spells that helped define the Guardiola era.
Rodri, the midfield metronome and arguably the most important player of the last few seasons, has departed for Barcelona. In one summer, City have lost their most reliable defender, their creative conscience and their midfield anchor.
City have tried to punch back. Elliot Anderson has arrived from Nottingham Forest after impressing both in the Premier League and on the World Cup stage. The club remain heavily linked with Enzo Fernández and Ayyoub Bouaddi, a clear sign that Maresca wants more control and energy in the middle of the pitch.
All of this unfolds against an uncomfortable truth: City have gone two straight seasons without winning the Premier League, edged out by Liverpool and then Arsenal. At this club, that drought already feels too long. Maresca’s reign started with a jolt, a 3-0 defeat to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal in the Community Shield that underlined how much work lies ahead.
Haaland: The Inevitable Focal Point
One thing has not changed. Erling Haaland remains the storm around which everything else swirls.
Barring injury or an extraordinary collapse in form, the Norwegian will be City’s top scorer again. He arrives off the back of an excellent World Cup and has hit at least 22 league goals in each of his four Premier League seasons, including 27 last term.
Under Guardiola, City bent their entire attacking structure to maximise Haaland. Maresca showed at Chelsea that his system can supercharge a forward line too. Cole Palmer blossomed under him at Stamford Bridge, but it was Nicolas Jackson who kept getting the chances. Haaland will get those same volumes of opportunities – and he will not be as forgiving.
The Quiet Rise at the Back
Trying to pick a “breakout” player in this City squad feels almost forced. This is an established, star-studded group.
Anderson already looks beyond that label after what he did at Nottingham Forest and at the World Cup. Jeremy Monga, the 17-year-old signed from Leicester, is clearly one for tomorrow, not today.
So attention turns to Abdukodir Khusanov. The centre-back began to emerge in the second half of last season, but this campaign offers something different: the chance to make the position his own when everyone is fit. With Stones gone and the defensive hierarchy shifting, Khusanov has a clear runway. If he takes it, City might quietly solve one of their biggest questions.
Foden at the Crossroads
If there is a make-or-break figure this season, it is Phil Foden.
Nobody doubts his talent. The problem last year was how little of it City actually saw. Foden drifted to the fringes, reduced to a bit-part role, and finished with seven league goals in 33 appearances. For a player of his ceiling, those numbers jarred.
The dip cost him a place at the World Cup. Now he returns with a renewed Manchester City contract and a full preseason behind him. Under a new manager, with new ideas and fresh spaces to exploit, this is the moment for Foden to reassert himself. If he catches fire, he can transform City’s attack almost on his own.
What Counts as Success?
At Manchester City, the definition is brutal: win the Premier League or the season is a failure. Guardiola did not invent that expectation, but he sharpened it.
That pressure does not ease just because he has gone, or because Bernardo Silva is no longer there to drag games to his will. Maresca knew exactly what he was walking into. He must dislodge an Arsenal side that finally broke their 22-year title drought and now believe they belong at the summit.
City, though, still have a squad built to win everything. For supporters, anything less than lifting the Premier League trophy in May will feel like a step back, no matter how stylish the football or how deep the cup runs.
The Guardiola Question
The biggest concern is obvious: what happens to a club conditioned to Guardiola’s precision when that brain is no longer in charge?
Maresca arrives with credit from his spell at Chelsea, where he collected the Club World Cup and the Conference League. Yet his league form there was never fully convincing, and he is not – at least not yet – on Guardiola’s tactical level.
He now works with the best squad of his career, which will mask some flaws. But the doubt lingers. Can anyone, Maresca or otherwise, live up to the outrageous bar Guardiola set? Or does this version of City inevitably take a step sideways before it can move forward?
The Verdict
Prediction: second.
If Maresca hits the ground running, City have enough to reel in Arsenal. But asking a first-year manager at the Etihad to instantly outduel a settled champion feels like a stretch.
The season will tell whether this is a brief pause in City’s domination, or the start of something more fragile.
