Back home 5,000 miles away, there ought to have been a certain Norwegian licking his lips at what Manchester City served up before they headed home from Asia. Presuming he has a subscription for the club’s in-house TV channel, that is.
This performance was made for Erling Haaland. The attacking style Enzo Maresca hopes to implement is made for Haaland. Atletico Madrid struggled for answers in how to counter City’s wingers – boldly direct all game – as they fizzed balls across the six-yard box.
That is Haaland’s zone and even before Omar Marmoush netted effectively the same goal twice in two minutes just before the hour – Antoine Semenyo hitting an area, the Egyptian tapping in – there came very real evidence that Haaland is going to be labelled a tap-in merchant. And City will not mind that one bit: that is where their goals are coming from this season.
It looks a game plan reliant on a man with a killer’s instinct, knowing exactly where to plonk himself. Haaland is the best in world football at that and City’s idea is clearly to lean into his strengths even further than they had done already.
Maresca had twice shown frustration before Marmoush’s double when Savinho had seemingly laid certain goals on a plate for a striker, only for nobody to arrive. The Italian bowed his head once and then outstretched the arms as Marmoush and others failed to fly in.
‘We cannot create the amount of situations and not finish the action,’ Maresca said. ‘There we need to be clinical. We need to improve. We are getting better there. With Erling we can be even more dangerous.’
Omar Marmoush produced two close range finishes from crosses aimed towards the six-yard box
Enzo Maresca’s gameplan looks to have been devised with Erling Haaland in mind
Rayan Ait-Nouri scored Manchester City’s third goal in their 3-1 victory over Atletico Madrid
Words were had at half time and it was noticeable that not only Marmoush but Phil Foden would later be readier to meet Semenyo’s crosses, crashing into the box in the way that had been replicated over and over in training the evening before. The victory was topped off by Rayan Ait-Nouri’s late third.
‘The players want to play,’ Maresca said as he left the door open for Marmoush’s potential exit, with Tottenham monitoring his situation.
‘They want to play. When they don’t play, they’re not happy. Omar’s desire is probably to play more minutes. It doesn’t mean that he isn’t going to play more minutes here but it’s also his decision.’
Spurs target Savinho shows what he can offer City
Spurs still hold a keen interest in landing the £70million-rated Savinho, who had intimated a willingness to seek a new challenge earlier in the summer.
But the Brazilian has shown Maresca what he can offer out on the right wing with this style of play. There were the dangerous cutbacks, the sort reminiscent of a bygone era in the early years of Pep Guardiola, that suggested more of an end product than had been evident in his first two seasons.
That was the positive side of a lively Savinho, who relentlessly beat his full back around the outside. And yet, there were reminders of his profligacy that has seen him score just seven times in 84 games across all competitions.
When pouncing on a mistake, the 22-year-old should have driven towards goal and forced Jan Oblak to commit, instead deciding to check back and attempt a curling effort into the far corner from outside the box. It whipped wide.
And one of Maresca’s other disappointments came as Semenyo hit a dangerous area, only for City’s other winger to still be on his heels. There is work to do and decisions to be made before the end of the transfer window.
Savinho produced dangerous cutbacks and reliably beat his full back, but still showed reminders of his profligacy
City will need Anderson to quickly get up to speed
Despite dominating, City had fallen behind before Marmoush’s brace. A scrappy opener by Jorge Dominguez, a 16-year-old defender who towers over most. The teenager stabbed past Gianluigi Donnarumma from the second phase of a corner. City should have cleared their lines but it wasn’t the end of the world.
What will have concerned Maresca more were the spaces between the lines that Rodrigo Mendoza, a 21-year-old signed from Elche in February, was afforded. Mendoza proved a problem for Mateo Kovacic, ghosting off the back of the central midfielder and creating two decent chances. City will need to be more robust in that area of the pitch when they meet Arsenal in Sunday’s Community Shield.
Elliot Anderson is not linking up with the team until Wednesday and so it is likely that Kovacic will feature alongside Tijjani Reijnders in Cardiff. The pair have been strong on the ball in South Korea while having obvious things to work through defensively from a positioning sense.
As Barcelona expect to wrap up a deal to land metronome Rodri, City will need Anderson to quickly get himself up to speed.
