"We have it quite clear what we need to do, and for sure we are going to do something before the transfer window closes." Enzo Maresca said that after a 3-0 shellacking at the hands of Arsenal in the Community Shield. The words were measured. The performance was not.
Calafiori scored after 25 seconds. Havertz made it two. Odegaard then strolled through City's penalty area for the third like he was taking a walk in the park. The result may have come in a curtain-raiser, but the manner of it was hard to ignore.
Yes, the Community Shield is not a reliable barometer — Erling Haaland didn't score in his 2022 debut and that turned out fine. But City's issues on August 16 weren't simply about rust. They were structural.
A midfield that doesn't exist yet
Rodri is leaving. Bernardo Silva already left. Tijjani Reijnders is also on his way out. That's effectively the spine of what made Guardiola's City so suffocating being gutted in one summer. Ayyoub Bouaddi is expected to come in as the Rodri replacement, but he's 18. Whatever he offers, it won't be what Rodri offered — not yet, not even close.
The Enzo Fernandez situation is complex. Maresca wants him, but he's not slated for the Rodri role — he'd play further forward — and his defensive work rate has always been a question mark. In a Premier League where press-resistance and physical duels are non-negotiable, that matters. City's wingers are being asked to press the opposition center backs under Maresca's system, which means the midfield behind them has to win its battles. Right now, that midfield is short on bodies and shorter on clarity.
Maresca is building around defined patterns out of the back — a 3-2 shape with coded triggers — which is a different beast to Guardiola's more interpretive system, where Bernardo, Rodri and Gundogan could improvise within the structure. Opponents will study those patterns. That's the inherent risk of becoming predictable.
Reasons not to panic — yet
Maresca's era is literally three weeks old. Half the squad came back late from post-Copa America and international breaks. Pre-season games in Asia showed a team capable of quick vertical passing and incisive wide play. The Cardiff performance exposed the gap between that promise and where they are right now — not where they'll be in October.
There are players who genuinely fit this system. Nico O'Reilly at left back could be a real weapon in Maresca's setup. The squad has individuals capable of winning one-on-one battles in both boxes. The football will look different to Guardiola's City — more direct, more physical in spells — and that's fine, as long as it works.
City's first Premier League game arrives on August 23. Title odds compilers will be recalibrating, and they probably should be — at least until the window closes and the midfield situation becomes clearer. The biggest variable right now isn't Maresca's system. It's whether City can sign the right players in time to make it functional.
"I am always concerned — even when we win games," Maresca said. "So imagine it now." A manager who isn't complacent in the face of a problem he fully understands. Whether he gets the tools to fix it is the real question.
