Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca faces a major selection headache after Antoine Semenyo was ruled out for eight weeks with a knee injury sustained during the weekend victory over Ipswich. The setback deprives City of a natural alternative to Erling Haaland, who also hobbled off at full time with a foot issue and remains a doubt for Tuesday’s Champions League fixture against AEK Athens. City are eager to get their European campaign back on track after losing to Paris Saint-Germain last Wednesday. Semenyo would have been the most obvious replacement but Phil Foden and Iliman Ndiaye could be utilised.
Addressing the media ahead of the European encounter, Maresca acknowledged the difficulty of replacing his star striker. To replace Erling it’s always difficult but we have some different options; we’ll see tomorrow, the manager said. To lose Antoine or any player for us is not good. Then in terms of Erling, we said that we can use Antoine as a 9 but also we have different players that we are going to try and to find new solutions.
The weekend win over Ipswich also saw Mateo Kovacic, Matheus Nunes, and Nico O’Reilly limp away alongside Haaland and Semenyo. Managing a brutal schedule of seven matches in a 21-day window through October, Maresca made six changes to his lineup to cope with fatigue following international duties earlier in the month. We try to manage all the players in the best way, try to keep them fit, Maresca noted, adding that unexpected setbacks like Semenyo’s injury remain beyond complete control. Showing the need to rotate amid a hectic schedule of seven games in 21 days in October for City, many of whose players also had international commitments at the start of the month, maresca had made six changes. We try to keep him fresh.”, we try to save him.
The heavy fixture congestion has severely limited training ground tactical work. Defender Marc Guéhi explained that preparation consists primarily of recovery sessions and sleep rather than extensive drills. We try and do what we can on the pitch to go through a few things and tactics before the games, Guéhi said. It’s just a lot of recovery, sleep, to make sure the body is right for the next game. To be honest; not to train, just playing games, which is fun.”, it’s been enjoyable.
Guéhi also addressed his decision to forgo taking a knee during the Premier League’s anti-racism campaign at the weekend, opting instead to applaud. He called for more substantive action within the sport to tackle discrimination, expressing hope that the underlying message continues to resonate. Which is important.”, hopefully the message is still getting out there.
