Enzo Maresca has introduced musical training at Manchester City in an attempt to put his stamp on the team after replacing Pep Guardiola as manager.
Maresca takes charge of his first Champions League game with City against FC Porto at Estadio do Dragao on Tuesday after guiding the team to the top of the Premier League after three successive wins so far this season.
But with City opening the doors to their training ground on Monday to allow for the practice session to be watched by media ahead of the trip to Porto, Maresca’s musical intervention was revealed as his players trained to a backdrop of what could best be described as loud nightclub music.
“It’s something I had in Leicester, in Chelsea, and I introduced here,” Maresca said when asked about the novel approach. “I think the players with music are more happy and can work better, it’s just for that.”
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“Ah, no! The players decide,” Maresca said when asked if he chose the music. “I would choose different music!”
City defender Matheus Nunes said the players were in favour of the new approach.
“I like it. Why not?” Nunes said. “All of them [players], they want to be DJs.”
City go into the Champions League aiming to win the competition for a second time, having won their only European Cup against Inter Milan in 2023.
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Guardiola’s City lost the 2021 final against Chelsea in Porto and on their return to the Dragao, Maresca said the club has high expectations in the competition.
“When you are Man City, the expectation is always higher,” he said. “I like more to be focused on the day by day, it’s very complicated to think where we can be in February, March, April in terms of expectations.
“For me, the most important is to see that we are improving game after game, and then we’ll see.
“It’s a nice competition. Now the format has changed and we need to adapt, it’s already been changed for two, three years. It’s already a long time ago.
“For sure, it’s a different competition, a new competition, but the ambitions are still the same: Try to be ourselves, win games, and then we’ll see.”
Maresca meanwhile confirmed that Nico O’Reilly and Jérémy Doku could both return from injury in time to face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.
