Maresca's Bold Move: Guehi Shines in Midfield for Manchester City
Enzo Maresca walked into his first Premier League game as Manchester City manager with a simple option: keep it safe, keep it familiar, keep his head down. He chose the opposite.
Six defenders in the XI. Marc Guehi in a holding role. Mateo Kovacic on the bench. At the Etihad, eyebrows weren’t just raised – they were practically on the roof.
For 84 minutes, it looked like the story would write itself. City, bruised by a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield, were drifting towards a second straight loss to open the season. The spotlight that had been fixed on wounded neighbours Manchester United and free-spending Tottenham was ready to swing sharply across town.
Then the experiment in the middle of the pitch changed everything.
Maresca’s gamble
The first clues came in the warm-up. While the back four went through their drills with a City coach, Guehi stayed away from the defensive group. England’s centre-back, the man signed and built as a rock at the back, was being nudged into the heart of midfield.
When referee Jarred Gillett blew his whistle, the picture became clear. Guehi was the pivot. The gamble was real.
This wasn’t some minor tweak. Guehi had barely played in midfield in his career. Yet Maresca, who had replaced Pep Guardiola in the summer and has been blunt about his need for new signings, had seen something.
“Sometimes you visualise things,” Maresca told BBC Match of the Day. “I know Marc from Palace and I always thought he could play as a midfielder because he is very good. So we tried it for a few days and I think he was quite good.”
Quite good was an understatement.
A defender who ran the midfield
Guehi didn’t just survive in the role. He shaped the game. He finished with all three of his tackles won – more than any other player on the pitch – a 94.9% pass completion from 59 attempts, and victory in eight of his 11 duels. Numbers that scream control, not chaos.
He admitted the switch had caught him out too.
“It was just an idea the manager had, we worked on it in the week,” he told Sky Sports. “We’re trying different things, trying different solutions for the team. I’m glad today it paid off in the end.”
Speaking to BBC Sport, he added that he had not played in midfield too often, but “enjoyed it simply because I got so much help from so many people. When you have that you feel comfortable to just go out and play and do what you can for the team.”
The comfort showed. He screened, he passed, he broke up play. And when City were staring at another damaging result, he climbed.
The late twist
On 84 minutes, with the Etihad restless and Bournemouth sensing a famous win, Guehi made his way into the box and rose above everyone. A towering header, the 10th Premier League goal of his career, turned a tactical curiosity into a full-blown managerial masterstroke.
The pressure that had been building around Maresca eased in an instant. The narrative flipped. Instead of questions about a rookie manager overthinking his first league game, the conversation turned to his bravery.
The comeback didn’t stop there. Josko Gvardiol, another defender in this shape-shifting City side, added a cool finish to complete the turnaround and seal an unlikely victory. A back line on the teamsheet, a rescue act in the final third.
Asked where he might play next week, Guehi laughed it off: “Who knows? Maybe up front. We’ll see.”
A new midfield picture
Behind the scenes, City’s midfield is being rebuilt on the fly. Just 50 minutes before kick-off, BBC Sport reported that the club had agreed an £86m fee with Lille for 18-year-old Ayyoub Bouaddi. Maresca said afterwards he knew nothing about the deal yet, with no conversations held with the decision-makers.
Bouaddi arrives with a huge price tag and even bigger expectations. He will be asked to step into a space vacated by the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner Rodri, now at Barcelona, and Tijjani Reijnders, who has departed for Saudi Arabia. Massive boots, minimal margin for error.
The plan is for Bouaddi to operate in the pivot alongside club-record signing Elliot Anderson. The former Newcastle midfielder lasted an hour on his Premier League debut for City, covering ground, breaking up attacks and offering glimpses of why the club invested so heavily.
On Sunday, though, his partner was the surprise. Guehi’s performance offered Maresca what he later called “a solution” in the middle of the park. Whether that becomes a permanent feature or a clever short-term patch remains to be seen.
Former City goalkeeper Joe Hart summed it up: “I think City look OK. It’s obviously interesting when they have had such settled world class players that they have almost mixed and matched.
“Anderson and Guehi is an interesting one in midfield but that won’t be a long-term thing, especially with Bouaddi coming in. I think with people coming back late from the World Cup, Maresca is just trying out things in-season, in-game.
“That’s just where Manchester City are at the moment, they’ve completely changed everything about themselves but they’re still expected to win.”
The expectation hasn’t shifted. The personnel has. The shape has. The aura is under construction.
On day one of the league campaign, with the pressure already circling, Maresca backed his own eye and his own idea. A centre-back in midfield, a late header, a comeback sparked.
If this is how he starts, what does the finished version of his City look like?
