Why Manchester City face a new reality under Enzo Maresca

Manchester City are operating in unfamiliar territory. For much of Pep Guardiola’s time at the club, continuity was one of their greatest strengths. Now, under Enzo Maresca, the picture looks very different, with the data pointing to a squad in the middle of a far quicker rebuild than City have typically known.

A sharp break from the Guardiola model

City’s recent history was built on stability. Season after season, the core of Guardiola’s side remained intact, allowing relationships, patterns and control to become deeply ingrained. That consistency is no longer there to the same extent.

One measure underlines the scale of the change. A Premier League season contains 37,620 player minutes if every starting place is filled for every match. Of those, 13,998 minutes from City’s 2025-26 campaign were played by footballers who have not appeared for them in the league this season and, in most cases, will not do so because they have left. That leaves City with a turnover rate of 37.2%.

Set against Guardiola’s record, that is a dramatic shift. Across his 10 seasons, City averaged 14.5% by the same measure, and there were four seasons in which the figure did not rise above 7.5%. For long stretches, almost every player who made a meaningful contribution one year remained part of the picture the next.

What the Coventry game suggested

Results have not yet punished City in the Premier League, but there are signs that the transition may carry risks. Their recent meeting with Coventry offered one of them.

Many expected City to win comfortably, especially with Erling Haaland heavily backed by Fantasy Premier League managers. He did score, but the game was far tighter than anticipated. Opta valued Coventry’s chances at 1.37 expected goals, while the visitors also managed 12 shots.

That shot total stands out. In a decade of Guardiola’s Premier League teams at the Etihad, visiting sides reached that mark only 17 times, and none of those teams were newly promoted. It is the kind of number that hints at a side still searching for the defensive certainty that once felt automatic.

New faces, new demands

The challenge for Maresca is not simply that City have changed personnel, but that so many of those now carrying responsibility are recent arrivals. The starting XI against Coventry may have looked familiar at first glance, yet several of those players built their reputations elsewhere.

Rayan Cherki, for example, was the fifth-longest-serving player in that side despite only arriving last summer. In the key defensive positions — goalkeeper, centre-back and holding midfield — only one of the five players selected was already a City player when the 2025-26 season began. Enzo Fernández’s inclusion, after Nico O’Reilly was injured in the warm-up, slightly altered the makeup of the team, but not the broader point.

That level of churn naturally affects cohesion. Defensive organisation and midfield control are usually the areas most exposed when a team is still learning itself.

Departures and recruitment questions

The list of exits helps explain why the turnover is so high. Bernardo Silva and Rodri were central figures in City’s success before departing. Nico González and Tijjani Reijnders also moved on after relatively short spells, while Omar Marmoush and Sávio have been sent to Tottenham.

Not every change has been negative. Marc Guéhi and Antoine Semenyo, despite only playing half of 2025-26 for City, quickly became part of the first-choice XI. Jérémy Doku, meanwhile, has yet to feature in the league this season after being an important player last term, and his return from injury should improve City’s retention profile.

Even so, the broader trend remains. City are still below the Premier League average turnover rate of 31.9%, and only Aston Villa, Tottenham, Newcastle and Brighton rank higher by this measure. Those same clubs are also the only ones who can match or exceed City for having five players who logged at least 1,500 league minutes last season but have not featured in 2026-27.

For Maresca, that is the task in front of him: to keep winning while building a new version of Manchester City at unusual speed. The numbers suggest this is not a routine refresh. It is a far more substantial reset.