Is Maresca already under pressure at City?

Suffering a defeat in what is effectively just a pre-season friendly should not, in itself, be significant.

After all, many of the players are still getting back to full fitness, especially this summer, when some of them went deep into the World Cup with their respective countries.

Nevertheless, the way that Manchester City were beaten by Arsenal in the Community Shield in Cardiff may set the alarm bells ringing with some of their fans.

In a battle between the two teams expected to be the main challengers for the Premier League again, Mikel Arteta’s side inflicted a major early psychological blow.

For new City manager Enzo Maresca, this was the worst possible start and immediately heaps pressure on him when he has only just got his feet under the table.

Replacing Pep

Replacing a legacy manager like Pep Guardiola was always going to be a tough task.

Guardiola, in his decade at City, transformed the club – and the Premier League. Not only was he highly successful in terms of silverware won, collecting 18 major trophies during his time in Manchester, but he also created a distinctive possession-based style of play and set the standards by which all his successors will be judged.

And City fans do not have far to look to understand the challenges involved in succeeding a legacy manager.

When Sir Alex Ferguson retired as Manchester United manager in 2013, the club had just won its 13th Premier League title.

Thirteen years later, the wait for a 14th continues. David Moyes lasted less than a year, whilst Louis van Gaal, José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, Erik ten Hag and Rúben Amorim all came and went without any of them able to replicate Ferguson’s success and dominance. Michael Carrick, a Ferguson protégé, is the latest man tasked with the job, but few expect him to reclaim the Old Trafford glory days anytime soon.

Arguably, Maresca has some advantages over Moyes because City have developed a highly efficient and organised football structure around the manager. The club is also better resourced financially than United, which is hampered by the debt on its balance sheet.

The Italian also knows the club well, having served under the Spaniard as one of his assistants.

But none of that changes the fundamental problem. Guardiola has established a level of success at City that makes the job of replacing him almost uniquely difficult.

Maresca is not simply being asked to win football matches. He is being asked to succeed the manager who transformed Manchester City into the dominant force in English football.

Selling Rodri

The squad he is inheriting is also not as strong as the one Guardiola enjoyed in his prime.

At the end of last season, Bernardo Silva was allowed to leave on a free transfer, and John Stones followed in his footsteps.

And now Rodri is set to join Barcelona, who will be acquiring an almost impossible player to replace.

No other player defined the Guardiola era more than the Spanish defensive midfielder, who protected the defence, controlled the tempo of games and allowed team-mates to play their natural game.

The 2024 Ballon d’Or winner also scored important goals, including the winner in the 2023 Champions League final.

Maresca begins the new Premier League season with a gigantic Rodri-sized hole in his squad to fill.

That makes his task even more difficult. It is one thing to replace Guardiola when inheriting a team capable of continuing to dominate. It is another when some of the players who were central to that dominance have already departed.

Not always popular

When assessing his suitability for the job, the City hierarchy would have been aware that Maresca has not always been popular at his previous clubs.

At Leicester, despite taking the club back to the Premier League as Championship winners in his only season with them, some supporters became frustrated by his possession-heavy football and his reluctance to deviate from his methods.

At Chelsea, there were similar complaints, particularly when results declined, while his treatment of players outside his plans – the so-called “bomb squad” – was not universally appreciated.

There was also his messy departure from Stamford Bridge, with many supporters unhappy with the way that he had seemingly engineered it and the fact that he had already been in discussions with City about succeeding Guardiola.

City eventually agreed to pay Chelsea £17m in compensation, whilst Maresca apologised for his conduct.

Following Guardiola requires somebody with enough conviction to establish his own authority, but Maresca’s uncompromising and abrupt style may be what gets him into trouble.

The qualities that can make a manager successful can also become liabilities when results go against him. A manager who refuses to compromise when his methods are working can be seen as strong-minded and convinced. When they are not working, the same approach can be interpreted as stubbornness.

That could be particularly important at City, where the expectations will be enormous from the start.

City no longer the top dogs

Another issue that City have is that they are no longer the top dogs in the Premier League.

For much of Guardiola’s time in charge, his biggest rival was Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp, but six titles in seven years indicated the degree of City’s dominance.

But Arsenal, under Mikel Arteta, another former Pep disciple, have now emerged, and they look the team to beat once again.

The Gunners famously stuck with Arteta despite finishing eighth in his first season in charge, and they have been rewarded as he has gradually built them into one of the strongest teams in Europe.

That patience has given Arsenal the opportunity to develop without constantly changing managers, and they now appear to be reaping the benefits.

The Community Shield was only one match, and it would be foolish to draw definitive conclusions from it. But the manner of the defeat will not have escaped the attention of City supporters.

Arsenal have become a serious challenger to the dominance that City established under Guardiola. The psychological battle has therefore already begun, and Arsenal have landed the first blow.

Following greatness

The reports that Maresca has decided not to move into Pep’s old office at their training ground, which has been turned into a meeting room instead, suggest that the Italian does not want to invite comparisons with his predecessor.

But, as Moyes found at United, they will be made anyway.

Every defeat, every poor performance and every dropped point will reinforce the perception that Guardiola has left a void that cannot be filled.

That is the problem with following a manager who has been so successful. The new manager does not start with a blank sheet of paper. He starts with the history of what came before him.

Finishing second in the Premier League with a strong points total, playing good football and perhaps lifting a domestic cup could represent an excellent season for many managers.

At City, it might be interpreted as failure.

And that is the curse of following greatness.

The new manager is judged not against the history of the club, but against the extraordinary recent past.

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Andy is a sports author whose writing explores the games, teams, rivalries, personalities, and stories that have shaped the sporting imagination. He has published three non-fiction sports books covering football, Formula One, and the wider stories behind some of sport’s most compelling rivalries.

His latest book, Football and War, examines the relationship between international football and the political and historical tensions that can lie beneath the surface of the game. It explores how football rivalries between nations are often shaped by events and conflicts that extend far beyond the pitch.