Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca spoke about the changes coming for the Norwich game in his lineup
Enzo Maresca during a Manchester City game
Enzo Maresca plans to make changes to his Man City team
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Enzo Maresca will give opportunities to fringe players for Manchester City's game with Norwich on Thursday - and wants them to play their way into his first team. Having used mostly the same group for back-to-back matches at Porto and United last week, the City boss is ready to shuffle his pack.
Pep Guardiola won five Carabao Cups in ten years and Maresca has been told that his job is to make sure the team is strong across all four competitions. Guardiola would often use the cups to rotate though and Maresca is planning the same.
Rico Lewis, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Nico O'Reilly and Vitor Reis are among the players who could come into the team, while Allan could also get his first minutes since signing from Palmeiras. Academy trio Ryan McAidoo, Kaden Braithwaite and Floyd Samba are also expected to be involved.
Maresca wants to give minutes to players who haven't featured much in the early weeks of the season, but still has designs on using them in bigger fixtures later in the campaign.
"We are going to make some changes," said Maresca. "I don't know how many but for different reasons. The ones who will play I'm sure at some stage they will play important games later in the season in the Premier League and Champions League.
"With the amount of games and injuries, players need rest, so for them it is an opportunity to get better and better and better because we will need them in important games."