How Enzo Maresca's 'Chess Football' Makes Him Perfect For Man City
With Pep Guardiola's era potentially ending, all eyes are on Enzo Maresca. This tactical analysis explores how his possession-based, adaptable system, which treats the pitch like a chessboard, makes him the perfect successor.
Video Transcript
So Enzo Maresca is going to be taking over at Manchester City, replacing Pep Guardiola at the end of the season.
But how will his tactics translate to English football's most dominant force?
Well, from finding partnerships across the pitch to pinning the opposition in with the ball.
I'm Jacob Horsfall, FourFourTwo's resident tactician, and this is how Enzo Maresca could dominate with Manchester City.
Before we look at which players get in where, we first got to understand Enzo Maresca's managerial philosophy.
Maresca titled his coaching thesis Football and Chess.
Obviously, comparing a football pitch to a chess board and how different players can act as almost pawns as part of a bigger plan.
Big credit to John Muller who put that on Twitter, by the way.
In Maresca's first Chelsea season, he made 419 changes throughout the course of that season, and I think that directly links to the chess-like approach because he's constantly tweaking and adapting his style of play to suit the opposition, but still maintaining his core principles.
Here we see those chess pieces sort of form in different zones of the pitch.
The three-back horseshoe at the back here is a common theme for Maresca's in-possession plan, and I suppose they can be almost like your pawns, in a sense, on a chess board.
You then have the two in front of the back line, and I suppose they're almost like your knights because they are operating in different ways.
They're either sitting in front to receive the ball or they'll be making moves into the half-spaces to stretch the opposition's midfield block.
You've then got your front line, who are your more aggressive players, the ones who are gonna go and take the opposition's pieces.
The problem that Maresca had with Chelsea was the balance in that attack just wasn't right.
At Leicester, the attack had Fofana and Mavididi on the wings.
Mavididi more ball to feet and Fofana more of a direct runner.
He then had Jamie Vardy and Dewsbury-Hall, Vardy being the runner and Dewsbury-Hall being more ball to feet.
The premise is to have a sort of fire and ice dynamic, not just in attack, but across the entire pitch.
Having profiles who complement one another makes adaptability in games so much easier.
On the 16th of December, 2025, Maresca stated, "We've tried to find the right balance."
Which I think is something that everyone has struggled with at Chelsea.
But at Manchester City, will it be any different?
Well, let's imagine it'll be a 4-2-3-1 starting formation, something that Maresca has looked back on throughout his managerial career.
For me, the choice in goal is simple, but for other people, I suppose it's a debatable topic.
Donnarumma has been pretty good this season, making some saves that not many other keepers in the division would make.
But this situation is a problem.
Look how deep Manchester City are, because Donnarumma can't play further forward.
He can play those sideways passes to the split center backs or to the tight midfielders, but if they were to go a little bit further up and try to receive in the pockets, Donnarumma can't find them.
That's not a critique of Donnarumma because he's not necessarily doing something wrong.
It's more about the things that he just can't do.
It's just not in his skill set.
It's not in his arsenal.
He can't play those passes.
So in goal, I'd have James Trafford.
In a possession-based system, Trafford can free up these four players to allow them to push a little bit further forwards, which ultimately puts less pressure on his team because the opposition are then gonna be pinned back by those City players pushing forwards.
Now, that leads us onto the center halves, and I think Enzo Maresca will be very happy with them profiles that he's got at his disposal.
We talked earlier about fire and ice as a metaphor for complementary partnerships.
Now, Maresca at Chelsea, I would probably say those complementary partnerships are Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana.
Colwill is probably more of a recovery defender, and Fofana is someone who can be a bit more aggressive.
But the important thing is, with Maresca, both can do either job.
If we shift it to Man City terms, I would say that Gvardiol and Kusunov are similar but at a higher level.
In these positions, Marc Gvardiol wants to engage, whilst Kusunov is an athletic freak, so he can eat up any ground behind them, which gives you that fire and ice.
Someone who wants to be aggressive, hit the first man, win the first contact, but someone who can deal with pretty much anything that goes wrong.
Well, Kusunov can deal with anything at this moment in time.
He can do no wrong.
So that's our center halves, and now we have the full backs, but these sort of intertwine with the midfielders.
To come back to that idea of balance, the full backs and midfielders for me almost blur the lines between positions across the four of them.
A Maresca full back needs to be capable of playing in all four zones on their side of the pitch.
The importance of that is that when the game goes on and tweaks need to be made, Maresca can change things.
He can make adaptations without having to make huge wholesale changes.
You look at a partnership of Cucurella and James and you see two players who can both be a third center back, both invert into midfield, and both operate in the attacking spaces, both centrally and on the outside.
So do Man City have those types of full backs?
Well, at left back, I think Nico O'Reilly is a perfect fit.
He kinda gives you everything you would possibly want from that sort of fluid, versatile full back in a Maresca system.
His heat map shows him operating across basically the whole pitch, whether that's dominating the wide areas or operating on that inside area and even the opposition's box.
Now, I know he has been deployed as a midfielder at times, which obviously influences the stats, influences his heat map, for example, but look at where Cucurella is here.
He's a midfielder in this passage of play.
Therefore, I think that Nico O'Reilly comes into that position.
He can do the midfield job and the outside job to a really, really nice level.
So that moves us onto the right back, and I think that's a little bit different here for Manchester City.
Pep Guardiola has transformed Matheus Nunes into a really good right full back who can do pretty much everything to a serviceable level.
And do you know what?
There would be nothing wrong with him being Enzo Maresca's starting man.
I think either way, he's gonna get a ton of minutes under Enzo Maresca.
However, I wonder if Maresca will come in and look for a slightly different profile, someone who brings you a little bit more on the ball.
As I said earlier, this position needs to be able to do everything.
They need to be able to go on the inside.
They need to be able to get into the box.
They need to be able to go into the right half space on the edge of the opponent's box.
So I've got a certain man in mind who could potentially be an outside shout for Man City to go and get and bring back to the Premier League.
It's Trent Alexander-Arnold.
I know, it's a bit out there, but he would be perfect.
He's played just 1,163 league minutes this season, and he's someone who, for me, fits that chess-like approach.
Have him in the half spaces creating chances like Reece James did under Enzo Maresca, and wow, that sounds beautiful.
But for now, from what City have currently got, I think Matheus Nunes is the man who goes in at right back.
But if a cheeky Trent was to pop about, let's just say I wouldn't complain.
The midfield is next up for discussion, and to be honest with you, it's a bit different for Man City.
I think over the years City have always had a tap and you know who their starting midfielders are.
They're, they're kind of the core of a Pep team.
But it's a little bit different at the moment.
Bernardo Silva is leaving at the end of the season, and Rodri is struggling to hit consistency since his injury, which means there's almost a sort of gap in the market for a midfielder to really step up and take the reins under Enzo Maresca.
But what do they need to be able to do to take those reins?
Well, as I said, these four positions can be seen to intertwine.
In games that Maresca wants to attack more, expect to see two of these players, let's say at the right-hand side, to push on creating almost a 3-1-2-3-1.
On the flip side though, again, it's all about that balance.
If Maresca goes away to the Emirates, he's not gonna bomb two of these players on and sacrifice having two of his core defensive players.
Therefore, both midfielders have to have a few different things.
High energy, they've got to be able to cover the distance.
Positional awareness, there's lots of rotations in a Maresca team, and they need to be able to manage the space left by those rotations.
And high technical ability is a non-negotiable.
Now, if Rodri was to stay at the club, you'd expect he is the man that goes in there operating in sort of a Caicedo role.
That Caicedo role means almost exclusively dominating this area of the pitch and constantly being an option to recycle possession.
And then when we go next to him, well, that's where the issue is really there.
Tajon Buondia is a possibility.
In possession, he makes perfect sense.
Out of possession, yeah, I'm not really a big fan.
He's just not competitive enough.
He's not someone who will put the hard yards in and win those duels consistently.
Obviously, Maresca is a possession-based coach who wants to play attacking football, but he's also pragmatic in a sense.
He wants to minimize the transition risk, so defensive output is really important.
So I'm gonna do something interesting.
We've got Nico O'Reilly at left back in this case.
I'm gonna move him into midfield, and we're gonna pop in Ryan Ait-Nouri at left back.
Ait-Nouri ticks all the boxes required as that versatile fullback, and O'Reilly, as we've already mentioned, has progressed quite significantly this season in the middle of the pitch.
Which leaves us with this.
We've now got the big four positions to talk about.
Well, three actually, 'cause Haaland is going up top.
But the rest of the attack is a little bit more up in the air.
We mentioned that fire and ice earlier, and the attack is no different.
We've got that question of getting the balance right.
Enzo Maresca's attack at Leicester City gave us the blueprint for Manchester City under him.
I say that because despite the league difference, the situation is similar.
He won the league with Leicester and was able to punch down on teams with sheer quality, unlike when he was at Chelsea.
However, he obviously still had a plan for his Leicester attack.
Almost everything went through Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall as that ball to feet creator, whilst Jamie Vardy and Abdelfatah stretched the pitch and acted as constant running threats.
Maresca trusted Dewsbury-Hall so much as that creator, as that sort of outlet player, that he actually took him to Chelsea.
Yeah.
He loves his number 10s that much.
So in the Manchester City version of a Maresca attack, I think I'd be giving the reins to Ryan Sherki.
In the league, he's Manchester City's top chance creator this season despite playing just 1,720 league minutes.
He thrives in tight spaces and gives Maresca a level he's simply just not had before.
At Chelsea, Enzo Maresca struggled against those low block sides, but for me, the reasoning is clear.
When you look at his typical attack, you like that balance.
There's lots of runners and minimal small space technicians who can receive and create their own space.
Cole Palmer is probably the closest, and he's not really a superstar in those small spaces.
So just imagine Maresca with Ryan Sherki as his ball to feet number 10.
I reckon that a lot of those low block issues are solved pretty quickly.
Now, that leads us onto the wingers, and we've got to get this right.
The balance has to be correct.
Phil Foden is someone who I think will have a great time under Enzo Maresca, whether that's gonna be rotating with Ryan Sherki or potentially being a ball to feet winger out wide.
But when I look at this team, I just don't think Foden gives us the balance that we need out wide.
Therefore, I'm going with Jeremy Doku and Antoine Semenyo as the wingers.
Doku is arguably the best 1V1 winger in the world.
He sits second in the Premier League for successful dribbles per 90 with only Ryo Ngemoa above him, but their difference in minutes is just astonishing.
If you task Doku with being that runner, you take away his best trait.
He wants to get the ball to feet, square up a man 1V1, beat him, and wrap that ball into the back of the net.
If Doku and Sherki are in this team, then we've got our two more ball to feet players who provide balance, creativity, and ball retention when needs must.
Although, I could see Phil Foden slotting in if ball retention is priority in certain games.
The balance for those two who are gonna constantly want the ball, who are gonna be trying to get the ball with their back to goal, is to have, Erling Haaland up top and Antoine Semenyo on the right wing, which gives Maresca those multiple angles to goal that he wants and the perfect harmony of balance that he craves.
It is obviously sad that Pep's leaving Manchester City, the greatest manager in my lifetime by a million miles.
But I think Enzo Maresca with his game model, with the way he wants to play football, can maintain the level City are at if he can take the pressure and step up to having to compete for titles.
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We'll be back again next week.
We're getting ready for the World Cup.
Come on, it's coming home, maybe.
And I'll see you all next week.
Peace.
