Maresca Urges Man City to Stay Balanced After Third Straight Premier League Defeat

Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca has urged his players to keep a sense of balance after a 3-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday, City’s third straight Premier League loss.

Jair Cunha and former City striker Liam Delap put Forest in control inside 18 minutes. Rayan Cherki pulled one back with a fine strike after the break, but Delap struck again on a quick counter-attack to seal the points for Oliver Glasner’s side.

The result leaves City six points behind champions Arsenal. They won their first seven league games of the season before losses to Aston Villa, Brighton and now Forest.

Maresca said he is always concerned, even after wins, and wants his squad to stay level-headed.

“I’m always concerned, even when we win games,” he said. “We need to have balance. We won seven in a row. Now we have lost three in a row, so we need balance on that.”

He said the international break would be used to work out what needs fixing.

“During the international break, try to understand what we can do better, and try to start again after the international break,” he added. “In the same way we have done the first one, we’re going to use this international break to try to clarify what we can do better. We know we do some things better, and also we know we need to improve things. So we are going to use that and try to understand how we can avoid these kind of games.”

Maresca also explained why Marc Guehi and Josko Gvardiol were taken off at half-time.

“Both injury, both asked for a change,” he said. “Marc Guehi an injury. Josko Gvardiol had some issue already during the week, so it was just because they had problems.”

For Forest, the win eases some pressure. Glasner had won just one of his previous nine games, and club-record signing Delap had scored only once since joining from Chelsea. The Forest boss praised his striker’s double, but said there is still plenty of room to improve.

“It’s now for Liam to keep working, getting into his best shape,” Glasner said. “Let’s say getting back to the Liam Delap he has been at Ipswich, and then even of course improving his game and he has still a lot to improve.

“Definitely not his finishing with left and right, but he has to improve his heading, he has to improve his movements in the box. He has to improve his understanding what we’re doing out of possession. But, also very honestly, he did very well.”

Glasner also joked about his touchline sprint to celebrate Delap’s second goal.

“Of course, I can’t demand from the players they have to outrun the opposition, and I run less than the opposite manager. So I think I had to follow,” he said. 

“I just was told they were running six or seven kilometres more than City today, and that means I had to run more than Enzo Maresca as well, and I did my job. It was funny for me.”

City must now use the break to check on the fitness of Guehi and Gvardiol and find answers to their sudden defensive problems. 

When league football returns, they will be under pressure to close the gap on Arsenal before their title challenge suffers lasting damage.