Enzo Maresca inherits a City defence that has been rebuilt piece by piece over the past 18 months.
The question now is not whether the raw materials are there, but how he chooses to use them.
City finished last season having conceded 35 goals in 38 Premier League games — the second-best defensive record in the division, though eight more than champions Arsenal.
John Stones and Nathan Ake have both left the club this summer, but the impact of their departures is softened by who remains: Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Marc Guehi and Abdoukhadir Khannouchi, four centre-backs good enough to start for most Premier League sides, competing for two places.
Guardiola settled on Guehi and Khusanov as his first-choice pairing after January, and the partnership worked. Guehi provided calm, Khusanov provided the muscle, and together they helped City tighten up defensively in the second half of the season.
Whether Maresca sticks with that pairing or reverts to Dias and Gvardiol — his most experienced and most talented option on paper — is one of the first calls he has to make.
Khusanov in pole position…
There’s also a fifth option. Vitor Reis spent last season on loan at Girona, where he impressed enough that Maresca has told him directly he’s back in first-team plans rather than facing a second loan.
Reis reads the game well and is comfortable bringing the ball out from the back, attributes that suit the possession-heavy football Maresca wants to play. He won’t start the season as first choice, but he gives City a genuine fifth option rather than being a makeweight in the squad.
Khusanov’s situation adds another layer to this discussion. He’s just signed a new five-year contract, with director of football Hugo Viana calling him a player with “all the assets needed” to become a world-class centre-back.
That’s a significant commitment to a 22-year-old who only arrived from Lens in January 2025, and it suggests City see him as a long-term fixture regardless of who partners him week to week.
Elsewhere, the picture is less settled. Right-back remains City’s one obvious area of concern.
Matheus Nunes is the incumbent and has developed into one of the Premier League’s better options there, but his deputy Rico Lewis struggled last season and fell out of matchday squads by the end of the season. Maresca may simply use Khusanov in that role when needed, as Guardiola occasionally did, rather than bring in a specialist.
Left-back, by contrast, has gone from a weakness to a strength. Nico O’Reilly’s breakthrough season saw him generate more expected goals from headers than all but five defenders in the Premier League, an unusual return for a full-back and one that speaks of his physical presence in the position.
Clues in Hong Kong
Rayan Ait-Nouri offers a different profile as backup, and Gvardiol can slot in there too if Maresca wants to rest his centre-backs without weakening the side.
Maresca’s first match in charge offered an early, if inconclusive, glimpse of how this might look going forward.
City drew 1-1 with Inter Milan in Hong Kong before losing on penalties, with Khusanov among three City players to miss from the spot. Pre-season results carry little weight, but the personnel decisions Maresca makes over the coming weeks will start to reveal his thinking.
What’s clear is that Maresca isn’t inheriting a problem. The opposite. He’s inheriting an embarrassment of riches, and the pairing he settles on — along with how he solves the right-back question — will say a lot about the identity he wants City to have this season.
