Maresca's High-Risk Manchester City Setup Exposed in Three Straight Defeats

Manchester City's run of seven consecutive Premier League wins has been followed by three defeats, and a Football365 report argues that the problems behind the slump were visible even during the winning sequence. The article, published on 9 November 2026, questions what has gone wrong under Enzo Maresca and points to a tactical approach that leaves the team exposed in central areas and in transition.

The report notes that City initially got on with business by beating Liverpool and Ipswich, but it argues that some of the early wins were as much of a "sham" as the club's sponsor contracts, claiming the difficulties seen in the losses to Villa, Brighton and Nottingham Forest existed beforehand. As evidence, it cites Frank Lampard's Coventry, who should have scored more than once, Sunderland, who scored three times, and Ipswich Town, who scored twice against City. The article also stresses the context of losing Pep Guardiola and signing a large number of midfielders in the summer, warning that business as usual could not be assumed.

Against Nottingham Forest, according to the report, City were pressed, harried and rushed on the ball by Forest's physicality and aggression. On multiple occasions they lost a duel or the ball in the middle of the pitch, and Forest ran through them to be clean on goal. For the first goal, Oliver Glasner's commitment to that approach was illustrated by Jair Cunha, a right centre-back, following Josko Gvardiol out as he was on the ball close to his own goal; the Brazilian defender stole the ball before smashing in Forest's opener.

The article describes Maresca as boldly gambling by placing six players really high up the pitch and relying on Elliot Anderson and the defence not only to get the ball up to them but to quell challenges from opponents trying to steal it in the meantime. For Liam Delap's first goal, City are said to have had six players in attack, with Gvardiol the highest and Marc Guehi next to Anderson also positioned incredibly high. After Anderson loses one tackle in the centre circle, the report says, Forest were again able to counter-attack with City scant at the back because most of their players were caught up the pitch.

The report states that Maresca has instructed City to stay high, including Anderson's partner and the summer's most expensive signing, Enzo Fernandez. It argues that if the Argentinian is supporting the attack high in the press or even wide as an extra midfielder, opponents can be played through. Maresca is described as basically using Gvardiol as an extra midfielder in the half-spaces and trying to use seven attackers to break down low blocks, but the article says he has spent so much time focusing on how City will attack that he has not banked on the team giving up transition after transition.

Those transition issues, the report adds, are exacerbated by how loose City have been in their build-up play. It argues that a team attempting to play with lots of attackers and using a full-back as an extra central midfielder cannot give the ball away cheaply, yet that is exactly what City have been doing. The article asks why Maresca does not instruct a full-back to stay deeper as an extra passing option and as an extra player who can prevent goalscoring opportunities, or use Enzo Fernandez deeper next to Anderson and push the back line wider across the defensive line. It notes that even with City having just Dias and Abdukodir Khusanov back, everyone including Anderson, Guehi and Gvardiol had attack on their minds.

The report also questions why Maresca is hell-bent on playing Gvardiol at full-back when Nico O'Reilly is more tried and tested as an inverted full-back, and says he does not seem to trust Ayyoub Bouaddi, who has done nothing but impress with every minute he has got. In its conclusion, the article says City were a tad lucky in some earlier games and had played every team currently placed from 17th to 20th, adding that everyone seems to have forgotten the very controversial offside goal from Erling Haaland that won the Manchester derby. It rejects the suggestion, attributed to Gary Neville, that the charges are creeping up on everyone's mind, and instead argues that Maresca is doing what Guardiola did towards the end of his tenure: both are obsessed with attacking and fitting as many players in the opposition's half, and have forgotten to keep the door shut at the other end.

The alarming problem for City, the report says, is that Maresca is not Guardiola, so they handle the ball with less care. It argues the results at the start of the season needed context and that the last three games have exposed the problems hugely. The article recalls that towards the end of Maresca's time at Chelsea he also had problems on the pitch but was able to engineer his exit as the City job was ready and waiting for him, adding that this will not be the case in Manchester and that, with City's appeal verdict to come in early 2027, he needs to get hold of these issues before the club is in danger of spiralling.