Enzo Maresca has suggested Manchester City may still require further reinforcements before Tuesday’s transfer deadline, revealing the squad size he wants to work with.
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It has been a uniquely busy summer of transfer action at Manchester City, with Maresca overseeing wholesale change since taking charge - and there may yet be more to come before the window closes next Tuesday.
The Italian got his Premier League reign up and running last week, with Manchester City coming from behind to beat Bournemouth thanks to late goals from Marc Guéhi and Joško Gvardiol after Marcus Tavernier had opened the scoring.
Prior to Manchester City's 4-1 win over Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Friday night, the Italian was pressed on the number of players he ultimately wants at his disposal - and his answer hinted that the club’s business may not yet be done.
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Maresca reveals his ideal Manchester City squad size
Maresca indicated that Manchester City may still be a little light on numbers heading into a demanding campaign.
“I think probably the right idea is to have two players in each position. They need to compete between them,” he said in Thursday’s press conference. “The standard is higher when they can compete for every game.
“At the moment we have 21, 22 players and that can be the right number. In this moment we have three or four in this number who are Academy players, so thinking we are playing 60, maybe 65 games this season, we probably need more numbers.”
The idea that Manchester City may still dip into the market before Tuesday will come as a surprise to nobody, given the sheer scale of this summer’s turnover.
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Rodri, Tijjani Reijnders, Bernardo Silva, Savinho, Omar Marmoush, John Stones, Nathan Aké and Nico González have all departed, with Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi among those arriving to freshen things up - and, with academy talents such as Ryan McAidoo and Kaden Braithwaite making up part of that 21-to-22-man group, the sense is that Maresca would welcome another face or two before the deadline passes.
Manchester City players adapting to Maresca’s methods
Away from the transfer talk, there was encouragement for Maresca in how quickly his players are grasping his approach. The Italian pointed to the numbers from the Bournemouth win as evidence of the strides already being made.
“I think we are quite close,” he said. “Against Bournemouth, in terms of pressing, we recovered 76% of the ball, that is a fantastic result. I think the players, they are understanding in the way we want to defend and press.”
Maresca was unconcerned that his side fell behind against Bournemouth, insisting the underlying performance offered plenty to build on.
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“It’s football, in the end you can’t control everything,” he added. “But it’s much better if you can recover 76 per cent of the ball rather than 50 per cent. It means you give less chances to the opposition.”
A disrupted summer for Maresca
The Manchester City boss was also candid about the difficulties of implementing his ideas against the backdrop of a summer disrupted by a World Cup, late arrivals and ongoing recruitment, explaining that solutions have had to be found on a game-by-game basis.
“It’s complicated because you want to start new things and new concepts with a new manager, even if there are similarities with the previous one,” Maresca said. “It has been a little bit complicated because some players arrive late and now with transfers.
“That’s why Marc Guéhi in midfield was a solution and tomorrow there might be another solution. It’s my duty and my job to find a solution and try to help the players to win games.”
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For now, the immediate focus is on maintaining Manchester City’s winning start when they welcome Coventry City to the Etihad Stadium next weekend.
Beyond that, all eyes will be on whether Maresca is handed the extra bodies he feels his squad requires before the transfer window slams shut next Tuesday.