Enzo Maresca explained his thinking for the midfield selection against Brighton as Manchester City lost 1-0 in the Premier League
Enzo Fernandez
Enzo Fernandez
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Enzo Maresca thought it was the right call for Manchester City to start with three physical midfielders against Brighton - even if the result did not go their way. Maresca unleashed a midfield trio that fans have been crying out for, only for Elliot Anderson, Enzo Fernandez and Ayyoub Bouaddi to last just 55 minutes as a partnership before changes came.
It was an underwhelming performance from the team, and when Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden came on in the second half it gave City more of a spark against a Brighton side that were defending with everyone they had. However, Maresca backed the gameplan in a game where his team created enough chances to get more from the game but didn't convert them.
"I expected a physical game. Analysing them, watching them they are aggressive man-to-man," he said. "I watched the games they have played.
"I think it was a good idea to start with three physical midfielders and I was also thinking about last 20-30 minutes to refresh with Rayan, Allan, Phil. In this moment it is like this and we need just to move on."
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It is now back-to-back defeats for City in the Premier League - although they did beat Brighton in the Carabao Cup in midweek - and they now have testing away trips to RB Leipzig and then Nottingham Forest in the next week before the international break.
Anderson will be hoping to impress against his former team, and says City have to do better than they managed against Brighton.
"We created a lot of chances. Disappointing to lose," he said. We didn't manage to put chances away, on another day we put three or four away. We have to bounce back for the Champions League game in a couple of days.
"Three in midfield, man for man and we had the wingers staying high and wide. We did have the width but we didn't manage to get the chances away which is unfortunate but we'll have to work on it.
"We're all disappointed. Not good enough**,** we don't want to be losing games but we've got to stick together.
"We've had a great start to the season, two disappointing results now but we have to stick together."