Enzo Maresca reacts to Enzo Fernandez Man City debut and slams Iliman Ndiaye – ‘understand how to move’
Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has praised former Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez’s debut performance for the Cityzens, but he was not impressed with how Iliman Ndiaye played against Coventry City.
Man City got the better of Coventry 1-0 at the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League on Saturday.
Erling Haaland proved to be the difference between the two teams, as the Cityzens maintained their 100% record in the new Premier League season.
The game saw midfielder Fernandez and winger Ndiaye make their debuts for Man City.
Argentina international midfielder Fernandez joined Man City from Chelsea in the summer transfer window for £125million.
Man City signed Senegal international winger Ndiaye from Everton for £65m.
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While Ndiaye started on the left wing for Man City, Fernandez started as one of two central midfielders along with Elliot Anderson.
Enzo Maresca verdict on Man City duo Enzo Fernandez and Iliman Ndiaye
After the game, Man City manager Maresca praised Fernandez, with whom he worked at Chelsea, and was critical of Ndiaye.
The Manchester Evening News has quoted Maresca as saying about Fernandez: “It is much more easy with a player that you already share time together because they know exactly what you want.
“We know each other very well and I know how good he is and I know that he is going to help the team win games.
“The reason why Enzo was on the bench was just because he arrived two days ago.
“I know how frustrating it has been for Enzo in the last two or three weeks so the idea was to give him some minutes but in the end he played from the start and was quite good and I am happy with his performance.”
Maresca said about Ndiaye: “I think we had Enzo and Iliman first game with us and then Ayyoub [Bouaddi] and Ryan McAidoo first game in front of our fans.
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“That’s why for many reasons I’m happy with today’s win.
“I think they were all good but Ili just had two sessions with us, he needs to understand how to move.
“Most of the time he was moving in the wrong way, wrong direction but he needs to learn and for sure he’s going to learn.
“When (Marc) Guehi has the ball he was dropping a lot, and we don’t need that.
“We need him in the last third so he can be higher, that space was more for Josko Gvardiol to go there.
“It’s the same on this [right] side.
“Sometimes when Khusa[nov] has the ball Antoine [Semenyo] was dropping but he has to stretch.
“That space was for Enzo [Fernandez] but again in time they are going to learn the way we want to play.”
Maresca has also given an update on the injury suffered by Nico O’Reilly in warm-up.
The Man City boss said: “Nico felt something in his back, doesn’t look something serious but he was not able to play,” said Maresca.
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