Enzo Maresca admitted Manchester City remain a “work in progress” after his side needed a stoppage-time goal to secure a dramatic 2-1 victory over Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Marc Guéhi’s 85th-minute equaliser and Josko Gvardiol’s 91st-minute winner gave City’s new manager victory in his first Premier League game in charge, after Marcus Tavernier had given the visitors a first-half lead.
A familiar performance
Maresca felt his side’s display mirrored last Sunday’s 3-0 Community Shield loss to Arsenal. “I feel in the same position as after Arsenal,” the Italian said. “It’s normal you judge after results but I don’t see big changes. Unfortunately, this is a work in progress and I’m looking for solutions. For sure when you win games it helps.”
“If you think of the Premier League – it won’t happen that you will concede nothing. The goal we conceded was their first shot. They had two or three dangerous moments but it’s how you react. We’ve still got [Erling] Haaland, Elliot [Anderson], Marc [Guéhi], Nico O’Reilly [who all started], who are in pre-season still. It’s a huge difference in terms of physicality and we are going to get better and better.”
Emotional return
Before the game, City unfurled a huge tifo bearing his image that said: “Welcome back Enzo.” He said: “It is the perfect day. I was very pleased to see the banner when the game started. We gave them [fans] the joy at the end. It was quite emotional. The spirit was fantastic. It’s a game we deserved to win [but] you don’t need to wait for the last five minutes. We missed chances, then they scored and it became more complicated.”
Maresca deployed Guéhi in an unfamiliar midfield role. “I know Marc from [Crystal] Palace and I always thought he could play as a midfielder because he is very good,” the manager said. “So we tried it for a few days and I think he was quite good. He gives us a solution for the future.”
Rose rues late collapse
In his first game managing Bournemouth, Marco Rose came close to leading them to a first away win against City. “We’re competitors, we came here to win for the first time,” said the German. “We were in a good way to do so. But we did many good things. We have a lot of things to improve. At the end, how the game went was quite unlucky to lose that way. We had two situations – one corner kick and one attacking [move] – when we defended too passively.”
“We need to defend the corner better and the second goal was just too passive. We always try to push up – we want to defend higher. Here you need to find the right triggers and it’s hard to press. We did it really well until the end.”
