- 12 minutes ago
Enzo Maresca on PSG defeat and Ipswich preview
16/10/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
16/10/2026
CFGA, Manchester, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00You've got a busy run of matches coming up between now and the international break twice a week.
00:04Is this the time when you as a manager will really get to know all the players in your squad
00:08because you will, by necessity, have to use a lot of them?
00:11Yeah, for sure. It's a good moment.
00:13As you said, many games in a row, so we need to, for sure, we need to, in some games,
00:20rotate some players.
00:21So it's also a chance for them.
00:23But we also use the day-by-day to, you know, to get to know each other.
00:28If you do beat Ipswich this weekend, it will give you the most successful start of any manager in the
00:34Premier League.
00:35You'll go ahead of Carlo Ancelotti, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and, indeed, Pep Guardiola.
00:39I don't know if you're someone who manifests or visualises how things can go,
00:44but, I mean, could you ever have imagined having such a strong start in the Premier League?
00:49To be honest, I'm just focused on how we can win the game.
00:53That gives us the opportunity to go seven games in a row.
00:56So, 21 points, that is important.
00:59So, this is the only thing that I'm trying to be focused on.
01:03Then, these kind of records, I think, at the end, they can be good.
01:08If, at the end of the season, you achieve something, otherwise, they are not important.
01:14But, for sure, the main focus for me is how we can try to, you know, beat Ipswich tomorrow,
01:22manage players with the amount of minutes with us, with the international team.
01:25So, in this moment, it's the most important thing.
01:28And on the subject of home games, just to finish, in the last three, you've scored 12, but you've conceded
01:34seven.
01:35So, as the manager, is that a cause for optimism, or are you a bit concerned?
01:39How do you see that?
01:39No, I don't like to concede goals, to be honest.
01:42I don't like, I said already, the game probably against, after Sunderland game, that I prefer to win 1-0
01:49than 5-3.
01:52For sure, it's important that we score goals, because that means that we create high volume of offensive action.
01:58But, at the same time, we need to pay attention on how we defend, and how we can do better.
02:05Andy.
02:06Hi, Enzo.
02:08Obviously, it's been quite the week, emotionally, having to deal with two huge games after the fallout from the verdict.
02:15How pleased are you with how all the squad have handled everything?
02:20Very pleased.
02:21Very happy, very pleased.
02:23The international break has been quite busy.
02:27As you said, after that, we played Anfield away and PSG at home, so two big games.
02:34But we handled quite good, I think, as I said already many times, all together, the club, the fans, the
02:40team, everyone.
02:42But, tomorrow game, it's three points game, exactly the same points than Anfield away,
02:47so that's why it's important to continue on our run and try to win tomorrow game.
02:54And, for you yourself, obviously, as you said, the results have been great so far,
02:57but you're having to be the public face of the club amid this crisis.
03:01How are you finding the job at the moment?
03:03I'm very happy.
03:04I'm very happy.
03:05I've said many times that I don't feel any kind of stress about the outside situation,
03:15because it's something that I don't control.
03:18I just focus on, again, how we can try to win the next games.
03:24Hi, Enzo.
03:25You've got Phil Foden available again in the league after suspension.
03:28He's not scored since last December.
03:30He's obviously not played much football, even because he's not scored tomorrow.
03:33He's not been playing for England.
03:34How do you try and lift his confidence?
03:37Just try to work with him, you know, day by day.
03:40The international break and since the red card against United has been quite long.
03:45But he's training well.
03:47He's doing well since we start.
03:49He's very positive, very good.
03:51And, again, we see for tomorrow.
03:54He is available for tomorrow, but we have so many games that we decide if he's going to start tomorrow
03:59or not.
03:59But in case, no doubt that he's going to give us something.
04:03And how dangerous do you think Ipswich will be?
04:06They've won a few games already.
04:07And I know that when you were at Chelsea, I think you lost to them.
04:10You drew with them in the two games that season.
04:12Good memory.
04:13We lost a win and we drew at home 1-1.
04:15Yeah, that are the kind of games that they are very dangerous.
04:18I said many times.
04:20First of all, they had the entire week to prepare the game so they can change some team.
04:23They can surprise us.
04:25We played 48 hours ago.
04:27So it's a very tough game.
04:28It's going to be very tough.
04:29But, again, for us, it's important.
04:31Because, also, I think it's a great opportunity to win and to go six points ahead of the second one.
04:38Hi, Enzo.
04:40There's been a lot of talk and I have to ask you about the inflatable bananas.
04:43I was wondering what you made of them when you saw them at Anfield.
04:47And how have they helped galvanize morale within the squad?
04:50Very nice.
04:51I didn't know the history about, you know, behind the banana.
04:53I hope tomorrow I can see many bananas at the stadium.
04:57And, yeah, I think it creates a nice environment for the fans and for everyone that is in the stadium.
05:05Have you been promised one yourself?
05:08I have four kids.
05:09They already asked me.
05:10But tomorrow they're going to be at the stadium and we'll see.
05:15Hi, Enzo.
05:17Pep Guardiello was at the game.
05:19Did you get to speak to him afterwards?
05:21And what kind of things did you discuss and what was his mood?
05:26No, I saw him after the game.
05:29I didn't see him before the game.
05:30I saw him after the game.
05:31We were talking about the game, about the first half, about the second half.
05:35But, yeah, he was, first of all, very happy to be at the stadium.
05:40And then also very positive about things that he has seen during the game.
05:45But, again, I said before the game, I think it was great also for the fans to see him at
05:50the stadium.
05:51And this will be always his house.
05:54And did he speak to the players at all?
05:58No, no, no, at all, at all, at all.
06:03Hi, Enzo.
06:04Obviously, you say you spoke to Pep there.
06:06It's been quite, you're not stressed, I appreciate.
06:08But there's been a lot going on over the past couple of weeks.
06:10And I'm sure you've had lots of conversations inside the club.
06:13Have you felt the need to turn to anyone outside the club to get an external opinion on what's going
06:18on after the verdict?
06:24I'm quite a respected person.
06:27I respect everyone, everyone can say what they want, but then you can be agreed or not.
06:33So, I don't have any problem with people judging the situation.
06:37I think, from my point of view, the wise way to judge the situation, it's always to wait for the
06:43final ends, for the final words.
06:45But I can understand that now people need to speak about this situation.
06:52But are you personally speaking to someone outside the club to get a different point of view or to help
06:57you understand it?
06:58No, because I completely trust the club, so I don't need people from outside the club to understand more the
07:05situation.
07:06I spoke with the club a few times, they explained to me the situation, so the situation is very clear.
07:12And I trust the club, I already said many times, I trust the club 100%.
07:16I trust the people that they run the club, and this is the reason why I joined the club.
07:25Hi Enzo. Is there a way, or how can you use the last two and a half weeks, how can
07:32you use that to your advantage on the pitch with the players?
07:35Is there a way you can do that?
07:38You mean as a consequence of the situation of the noise?
07:43No, I said probably after the Liverpool game that there is noise around the club, but we need to try
07:53to make our noise.
07:54And to make our noise means win at Anfield, try to win tomorrow, and this is the way we can
07:59make our noise.
08:01Then different kind of noise, we are not able to control that.
08:06But when these sort of things happen, we've seen it with Man City in the past, when other stories have
08:12broken,
08:13it's helped galvanise players and squads and creates a different mentality within a group of people.
08:23Is that the sort of thing that you're impressing on the players, and have you seen that within them since
08:28you got back from the international break?
08:31I think Ruben said, no, that people don't like City win, but we like to win.
08:37So I think that is a good message for everyone.
08:40I think probably since the noise, we can see, I can see from my personal point of view, the fans,
08:49the club, the team, more together, for sure.
08:53But we see, we see.
08:58Hi, Enzo. There was a moment on Wednesday when Enzo Fernandes bumped into the referee, and he fell over.
09:04There's been some suggestion online that maybe pushed him, like pushed the referee out of the way.
09:08Did you see it that way at all?
09:09No. The player is not even thinking to push the referee in that action.
09:14It's just a random moment, but it was a bit funny.
09:20And you've worked with Enzo a lot, obviously. Maybe there's been question marks in the past from outside about his
09:25temperament, and maybe he's a bit rash in certain situations.
09:28How have you found him to work with, and his temperament in big games for your teams?
09:33He's a nice person. He has a big heart, nice person, polite, professional.
09:38Sometimes the image from outside is completely different from the reality.
09:44He's a top guy, and first of all, he's a very nice person, nice family, mum and dad, wife, kids.
09:51I know all of them, that's why.
09:53So, there's no doubt about that. He's a very good guy.
09:58Enzo, there was a moment, I think, when you just conceded the third goal on Wednesday, and Erling, Ruben, a
10:03few players got together on the pitch and kind of had a meeting between themselves.
10:08Is that what you want to be, seeing these players taking responsibility for themselves to sort out what's on the
10:14pitch?
10:14No, they were not trying to solve the situation.
10:17Otherwise, after the goal, we were getting better, but not.
10:20But I think it was good just because we had a difficult moment, so they were trying to be even
10:27more together.
10:31But, yeah, I think it was okay.
10:36And you're kind of learning new things about your players all the time, but to be 3-0 down and
10:41then to respond in the way they did in the second half must have kind of made you learn a
10:47bit more about some of them.
10:48Absolutely. Absolutely. Again, I have to say again the same thing that I said after the game, because I reviewed
10:55PSG game yesterday in the morning very early, and I have the same feeling.
11:01I think before we conceded the first goal, we had the penalty from Ryan Cherky, if you remember, the free
11:08kick from Enzo, the corner that finished in crossbar before their goal.
11:12But then we conceded the first one, and after one minute, we conceded the second one.
11:16I think that moment we lost distance between players, we lost the balance.
11:21That can happen, thinking that the other team is the best team in Europe.
11:25In two minutes, you go down 2-0, so it's a little bit.
11:28But then the second half was fantastic.
11:32At the end, I think probably we deserve something more.
11:34But it's football, as you said, I can learn many things from that, also from the first half, because there
11:41was something that was not working.
11:43So it's a good learning process for me and for everyone.
11:47And Erling scored two.
11:49He's on quite a run of scoring goals in every game.
11:52How do you keep him in that form and keep him in the physical condition to keep scoring?
11:57Yeah, I said at some point, probably we need to give him some rest, some days off.
12:02We are thinking about this, not just with Erling, because we are players that, unfortunately or fortunately, they are playing
12:10all the games for us and all the games with the international team.
12:13Elliot, Enzo, Marco, Erling, Ruben.
12:17So at some point, probably we need to give them some rest.
12:21Hi, Enzo.
12:22You obviously made three changes at halftime against PSG, but it seemed that Buadi in particular made a big difference.
12:30The midfield seemed a lot more solid in the second half.
12:32There was maybe more control of the game.
12:34Do you think that's something that you might need in matches generally, a bit more control in midfield?
12:40And because Buadi played so well, do you think you could use him more to get that in the future?
12:45Yes, 100%.
12:47I think especially against, I have experience already against PSG, when we won the club final, and the midfielder for
12:57us was quite strong.
12:59Caicedo, Rhys, James, and Enzo.
13:01For this game, I decided to go a little bit more, less physicality and more technically with Ryan, but probably
13:10against this kind of teams,
13:13probably you need to be quite strong, especially in the middle, because they are very good with Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz,
13:18Zahir Emery, or Joao Neves.
13:21But, again, I think the first time problem was for different reasons, but for sure Buadi, Enzo, and Elliott can
13:29be a solution in the future.
13:31Yeah, the three that you've been using quite a lot recently, like they obviously did a good job at Anfield,
13:36Elliott, Enzo, and Cherky.
13:39But can it be a little open at times against really good teams? Is that fair?
13:45No, no, I don't think that we can be open. I think that there are teams, there are games where
13:49probably you need to be a little bit more aggressive in the middle.
13:53But that means that you need three defensive midfielders. You can also play with offensive midfielders like Ryan or Phil,
14:01but it depends a little bit on the game plan.
14:05And what would you say the influence of Buadi was when he came on? From your point of view, what
14:11did he change?
14:13I think Ayub, first of all, is a fantastic player. The good thing about Ayub is that when he's inside
14:19the pitch, it's also improving the ones around him.
14:22And this is just from top players, because sometimes when top players are inside the pitch, also the ones that
14:29they move around him, they are better.
14:31And with Ayub, the feeling that I have is that when he's inside the pitch, all the ones that are
14:36around him, they are better players.
14:39How do they do that? How does that happen?
14:41Because there are players that, you know, there are players that playing aside some players, they can be better.