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Enzo Maresca has Man City captaincy plan with three decisions left

· Simon Bajkowski · 2026-08-16T03:16:36+00:00 · nguồn gốc

Enzo Maresca has Man City captaincy plan with three decisions left Enzo Maresca has to pick his first Manchester City captain as well as fill the leadership group for the season Manchester City will begin the season without a permanent captain as Enzo Maresca waits to make a key appointment. Ruben Dias is expected to lead the Blues out against Arsenal on Sunday for the Community Shield but the new City coach will wait until the end of the transfer window before confirming his choice. As reported in the Manchester Evening News, Maresca has already decided that he will pick a captain rather than allowing the players to vote - as they did for the first nine of Guardiola's 10 years at the club. The Italian is also keen on having an English presence in the four-man leadership group. City have said goodbye to skipper Bernardo Silva this summer, and Rodri is also expected to leave with Barcelona looking to complete a move for the World Cup winner; the Blues are holding out for a fee north of £60m, but there is confidence on all sides that an agreement will be reached. That would leave City with just Dias and Erling Haaland in the leadership group. Maresca has already joked that Haaland cannot be his captain because the Blues boss requires his skipper to come to the touchline for instructions during goal celebrations and the Norwegian scores too often for that, but those two players will have leadership roles. The only question is who will join them. Josko Gvardiol and Phil Foden have both indicated they would be happy to step up, but Maresca is content to wait until the season is already a few weeks old before deciding the best balance for the squad. "At the moment, Ruben and Erling. But I want to wait until the end of the window and then pick two more," Maresca said ahead of the Community Shield. "Ruben has shown during his time at this club how he is as a player, in terms of leadership . “It’s important for the captain and the leader to know that the reason they are captain is because I expect more from them. It’s not because I give them more freedom or advantage. It’s the opposite, the leadership group and captains have to show more and give more than the others.”