Maresca’s high line gamble leaves City exposed

Manchester City’s run of consecutive Premier League wins has been followed by a series of defeats. Enzo Maresca and City initially got on with business as they beat Liverpool and Ipswich, but since then there have been losses.

Against Nottingham Forest, City were pressed, harried and rushed on the ball by Forest’s physicality and aggression. On multiple occasions, they lost a duel or the ball in the middle of the pitch, and Forest ran through them to be clean on goal.

It feels as though Maresca is boldly gambling with placing six players really high up the pitch and relying on Elliot Anderson and the defence to get the ball up to them and quell any challenges. For Liam Delap’s first goal, City literally have six players in attack, with Josko Gvardiol the highest and Marc Guehi next to Anderson also positioned incredibly high.

Maresca has instructed City to stay high, including Anderson’s partner Enzo Fernandez, but if the Argentinian supports the attack high in the press or wide as an extra midfielder, they can be played through. Maresca is basically using Gvardiol as an extra midfielder in the half-spaces and trying to use seven attackers to break down low blocks, but he has not banked on the fact they are giving up transition after transition.

The issues in transition are exacerbated by how incredibly loose City have been in their build-up play. It begs the question why Maresca simply does not instruct a full-back to stay deeper as an extra man to pass to and to prevent goalscoring opportunities, or use Enzo Fernandez deeper next to Anderson.

What is happening is that Maresca is doing what Guardiola did towards the end of his tenure: both are obsessed with attacking and fitting as many players in the opposition’s half, and they have forgotten to keep the door shut at the other end. The alarming problem for City is that Maresca is not Guardiola, so they handle the ball with less care.