How do you replace Pep Guardiola?

Enzo Maresca is just starting to find out this summer, having been chosen as the Spaniard’s successor at Manchester City – returning after being Guardiola’s assistant during the club’s Treble-winning 2022-23 campaign.

Guardiola, one of the greatest managers of his generation, stepped down at the end of last season after leading City to 17 major trophies, including six Premier League titles and a Champions League victory.

Now, with his first pre-season as manager at the club nearing its end, Maresca sat down with the five travelling UK-based media in Seoul to discuss the challenges ahead.

“After 10 games, if we have got 10 points, 20 points, 30 points. People will be comparing it to Pep after 10 games, it doesn’t put pressure on me,” said Maresca.

“I have said many times while I was at Leicester or Chelsea, he is the best manager in the world over the last 15 or 20 years.

“When he started in Spain, everyone wanted to play like Barcelona, he moved to Germany everyone wanted to play like Bayern [Munich], he comes to England and everyone wants to play like City.

“Someone asked me if it’s the impossible job to follow him – maybe, but at the same time it’s a privilege.”

The ex-Chelsea boss says he met Guardiola in Barcelona a day before he officially signed as his replacement, as it was “useful” to pick his brains – having been at the club for a decade.

“We spent some hours together,” he said. “We had planned before the season finished here to spend some time in the summer holidays together.

“I like to go in empty sometimes to see things for myself – but he was here so long, he has his opinions. But also you have to arrive and see things for yourself, see all the picture.”

To signal a change for the players, Maresca has moved into the office of former assistant Pep Lijnders at City’s headquarters, next door to Guardiola’s old office – which has now been converted into a meeting room.

Shortly after his appointment as the City boss at the end of June, Maresca apologised to former club Chelsea for the “disruption” caused by his mid-season departure.

So what did he do during the intervening six months?

“I tried to enjoy a little bit more [time] with the family,” he says about his wife and four children.

“And everyone is talking about AI, so I want to understand how it works. So I did two masterclasses to understand it a little bit more and have more knowledge.”

Such has been the rise of artificial intelligence in everyday life, even Premier League managers are now beginning to dabble in it for those marginal gains.

But Maresca is going to need more than AI to make a success of his City career, having taken over from one of the greatest managers of his generation.

Maresca says the biggest difference in the Premier League from three years ago, when he was assistant to Guardiola, is the rise in set-pieces and teams defending man-to-man.

Last season, Arsenal claimed their first top-flight crown in more than two decades and scored 25 goals from set-pieces in the process – including 19 from corners alone – which is one aspect City are looking to “try to improve”.

But rules for next season have been brought in, in an attempt to speed up the game – such as players having five seconds for goal-kicks and throw-ins, with possession handed over to the opposition if those limits are exceeded.

Despite the look of crowded penalty areas and jostling at corners seemingly taking away from the division stylistically, Maresca still feels it is the “best league” with the “best players”.

He says: “It is because of the quality of the players, the quality of the managers, the organisation of the Premier League. It is completely different compared to other countries.

“Which league can compete with the Premier League? Spain? Barcelona, Real Madrid, yes, but then the rest is not the same. You have six teams here who are more or less there.”

Maresca said he has not done an initiation song in front of the squad as “the manager doesn’t sing”.

He described goalkeeping coach Michele de Bernardin’s performance as being “very good”, while analyst Javi Molina’s rendition of Frank Sinatra’s My Way was “the worst”.

In fact, “it was a disaster”.

The make-up of the backroom staff – with Argentine Willy Caballero, two Italians, three Spaniards and Maresca being able to speak French – means they have plenty of languages covered.

And then there is “the Englishman” – first-team coach Danny Walker, who was Maresca’s assistant in City’s elite development squad (EDS) and followed him to Leicester and Chelsea.

The manager is beaming when he discusses Walker. He says: “We go for breakfast it is beans on toast, we go for dinner it is a beer.

“When I joined the EDS, Danny was there, he was previously with the under-16s and they moved him to become my assistant. Since then we are always together, he knows Nico O’Reilly, Rico Lewis, he had them from under-six to under-12. He knows all of them.

“He is very good. He is good on extra work at the end, when we keep players doing something extra.

“It is demanding. If we don’t win games, we are all going home.”

Speaking of Englishmen, Maresca will choose the next City captain himself after Bernardo Silva’s departure, and wants a homegrown player in the committee.

The leadership group currently consists of frontrunner Ruben Dias, Erling Haaland and Rodri, who has been the subject of a failed bid from Barcelona.

So is the Norway star a leading candidate to take the armband?

“Erling was one of the first to send a message when I joined the club,” said Maresca.

“At Leicester and Chelsea I had a rule that when we scored the captain had to come to the bench, not to celebrate, but for instructions. But if he scores, then he can celebrate.

“If Erling is the captain, we have a problem, can you imagine? If you saw the game [against K-League XI] on Wednesday, when we scored the first goal, Ruben came over to the bench.

“I think even if it is two or three minutes, there is always something to adjust. At the moment, we have three or four [in the leadership group] and we are missing one. In the case of Rodri, see what happens.”

The next captain, Rodri’s future, City’s starting XI for Sunday’s Community Shield against Arsenal – the big decisions are stacking up as Maresca begins to settle into one of the biggest jobs on the planet.