Soccer
Is Semenyo the key to Manchester City’s post-Pep puzzle?
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There are more famous players at Manchester City, more expensive players and at least one whose goalscoring has ceased to look entirely human. Yet as Enzo Maresca attempts to reassemble the machine Pep Guardiola left behind, Antoine Semenyo may be his most useful component.
Pre-season caveats apply, but four assists across City’s three-match Asian tour constitute a fairly convincing audition.
Two came in the space of three second-half minutes against Atletico Madrid, both converted by Omar Marmoush as City recovered from behind to win 3-1. Semenyo had already created Tijjani Reijnders’ goal against the K League All-Stars with an inventive backheel.
This should not come as a revelation.
The perfect start
City paid Bournemouth £62.5m for Semenyo in January and received an immediate return. He scored on his debut in the 10-1 FA Cup win over Exeter, struck again three days later in the League Cup semi-final at Newcastle and registered seven goals and an assist in 17 Premier League appearances for City.
His finest contribution arrived at Wembley. Having already helped Guardiola collect the League Cup, Semenyo’s impudent backheel against Chelsea delivered the FA Cup and completed City’s domestic cup double.
He finished the league campaign with 17 goals across his spells at Bournemouth and City, a total built on substance rather than the suspicious arithmetic sometimes produced by a hot finishing streak.
The fascinating part is that Maresca might extract even more from him. Semenyo can operate from either wing, play through the middle or function as one half of a mobile forward pairing.
He is right-footed but genuinely two-sided in his movement, capable of driving outside a defender from the right or attacking the penalty area from the left. He can stretch a defence, receive to feet or carry the ball through contact.
That range matters because Guardiola’s departure creates a problem greater than replacing a manager. City must retain their control without becoming trapped inside a museum dedicated to Pep-ball.
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Maresca's Man City
Maresca shares Guardiola’s enthusiasm for possession, positional rotations and an extra midfielder appearing from the defensive line, but his best Chelsea team played with greater directness. Semenyo offers both languages.
He can hold the width Maresca requires before bursting infield, but he is equally comfortable turning a regain into an immediate attack. He presses with the intensity learned under Andoni Iraola, has the strength to protect imperfect passes and brings the penalty-box appetite City’s more decorative forwards have sometimes lacked.
Savinho may be the purer winger and Marmoush the smoother combination player. Semenyo is the man who can become whichever the game requires.
Even Erling Haaland benefits. Semenyo’s direct running prevents opponents from narrowing everything around City’s striker, while his willingness to shoot means defenders cannot simply treat him as another link in the passing chain.
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If they step out, Haaland gains space. If they do not, Semenyo needs little encouragement.
City’s post-Guardiola era will inevitably be presented as a tactical reinvention. In reality, Maresca’s first task is to make the transition feel unremarkable. A productive, powerful and positionally flexible forward who already understands the club is precisely the sort of player who can join the pieces together.
Semenyo may not be the biggest piece in City’s puzzle. He could be the one that makes all the others fit.
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