‘Enzo is unbelievable in the box’ Maresca ahead of derby

Manchester City’s Enzo Fernandez during their 2-0 victory over Porto in the Champions League recently. Pic/Enzo’s Instagram

[popcorn number="Four" desc="No. of wins for Man City this season in four games across all competitions" class="Default"]

[popcorn number="14" desc="No. of goal contributions (goals + assists) for Enzo Fernandez in the EPL last season" class="Default"]

[popcorn number="Five" desc="No. of wins for Man City in their last 10 games vs Man Utd across all competitions (one draw, four losses)" class="Default"]

Ahead of their much anticipated derby clash with Manchester United, Manchester City boss Enzo Maresca waxed lyrical about the Sky Blues's new £125 million (approx Rs 1616 crore) signing Enzo Fernandez, who has fitted in seamlessly at the heart of their midfield despite arriving from Chelsea with the English Premier League season already underway.

Hailing the Argentine's leadership skills as well as his development into a more potent force in the final third, Maresca said: "You can see the way his teammates always speak about him in terms of his winning mentality. It's important to have that in the squad. In the last two years, he has become more of an attacking midfielder. In the past he used to operate a little bit deeper. Now, he's unbelievable around the box, in terms of goals, assists, and also in terms of leadership, he has grown a lot."

Enzo Maresca

While City enter the game with a perfect record - they have won all three of their EPL games so far - Michael Carrick's Red Devils have been a mixed bag, losing their opening fixture to newly promoted Hull 0-2, before beating Ipswich (5-2) and drawing with Everton (2-2).

United, however, will take confidence from the fact that they defeated the Sky Blues in their last league encounter (2-0), which was also Carrick's first game in charge after Ruben Amorim's sacking. But Carrick played down the result, considering City have Maresca in the dugout instead of Pep Guardiola.

"We know it's a big game and there's a lot riding on it, but there's no way we're assuming: ‘We won last year, we can do the same things and everything will be the same.' There are little tweaks here and there [in City's approach now as compared to last season]. We know we have to put in a really good performance and do a lot of good things to get the result we want," said the English coach.

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