Gvardiol backs Maresca as perfect successor for Manchester City

Josko Gvardiol has backed Enzo Maresca as a “perfect one” for Manchester City after the club turned to a coach who already knows Pep Guardiola’s system from the inside. In a City interview published on 28 July 2026, the defender said Maresca is “one of the best” and added that City can “achieve great things” under him.

Manchester City announced Maresca as Guardiola’s successor on 29 June 2026 on a three-year contract, marking a return to the Etihad Stadium for a third spell. Maresca had previously worked with City’s Elite Development Squad and the first-team coaching staff, and he also served as Guardiola’s assistant during the Treble-winning 2022-23 campaign. That background gives City a rare continuity hire: a new manager with the same technical vocabulary as the old one.

The task now is to separate continuity from copycat football. Maresca’s teams have been built on positional play, a possession-first structure and inverted full-backs, with a shape that often starts as a 4-2-3-1 and becomes a back three in possession, or a 3-2-5 build-up. Guardiola’s City have long valued control, spacing and circulation from the back, so the broad idea is unlikely to change. The sharper edges may: Maresca has tended to be more explicit about where each player stands, how the double pivot forms and when full-backs step inside to overload midfield.

That matters for the squad City already have. Centre-backs comfortable on the ball, like Gvardiol, should fit a model that asks defenders to play through pressure and help create numerical superiority in the first phase. Full-backs who prefer to overlap and stay wide may see less of the pitch, while midfielders who can receive under pressure and rotate in tight spaces should gain value. The clearest sign that the transition is real, rather than cosmetic, will be whether City keep Guardiola’s control but change the geometry: narrower full-backs, a more defined double pivot and the back-three structure appearing as soon as possession is secured.

Maresca’s path to City also underlines why the appointment carries weight. Chelsea named him head coach on 3 June 2024 after his promotion-winning season with Leicester City, and City and Chelsea discussed compensation for his move. His return to Manchester closes a loop that began in the club’s academy and passed through Guardiola’s title-winning staff, making the next phase less about reinvention than about how much of City’s old structure Maresca chooses to preserve.