For all the changes at the Etihad this summer, Ruben Dias has offered an interesting reminder that Enzo Maresca doesn’t need to rip everything up.
Pep Guardiola has gone, the squad at City looks very different, and Maresca has arrived with his own ideas about how he wants his team to play.
But listen to Dias and the change on the pitch isn’t quite as dramatic as everything happening around it might suggest.
“Obviously, lots of things have changed but, in the end, not changed that much,” said the Portuguese defender.
Same City, different details
Dias spoke of the “new energy” Maresca has brought and the manager’s specific ideas both with and without the ball. But perhaps the most interesting part of his assessment was what hasn’t changed.
“Overall, it’s very much a game we were used to playing,” he said, explaining that the differences are found in the details and in certain moments of matches.
That makes sense. There would be little value in taking a squad accustomed to dominating possession and asking it to become something completely different overnight. City still want the ball and still want to control games.
As Dias put it, having plenty of possession remains one of City’s “main characteristics”.
The differences should become clearer with time. Maresca will have his own ideas on positioning, movement and what City do without the ball, but he hasn’t arrived intent on removing the principles that made the team successful under Guardiola.
Dias says the players are already “buying into the idea”, with City taking six points from their opening two Premier League games.
It is still far too early to know where Maresca’s changes will eventually take them, but Dias has probably provided the simplest description of what we are watching.
This isn’t City trying to become something else. It’s City trying to evolve without losing what already works.
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