Enzo Maresca Discusses Strongest Manchester City Starting XI Ahead of Nottingham Forest Trip

Enzo Maresca Discusses Strongest Manchester City Starting XI Ahead of Nottingham Forest Trip City have endured a tough run of games in recent weeks that involved back-to-back Premier League losses to Aston Villa and Brighton and Hove Albion , before Maresca’s side returned to winning ways in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday. Against RB Leipzig , Manchester City took the lead through a Castello Lukeba own goal after 37 minutes before Ridle Baku capitalised on Gianluigi Donnarumma’s ineptness to slip a low cross in at the near post. Less than 10 minutes after that equaliser, Enzo Fernandez met a beautiful cross from Iliman Ndiaye to head City back into the lead, but the away side met a similar fate to their first goal, when Antonio Nusa made it 2-2 with under 30 minutes remaining. For all their hard work and superiority in the game, it would have been painful for the Leipzig supporters to watch Erling Haaland score the winner , having played much more convincingly throughout. And while there were still many positives to take from the game for Maresca, this performance did not quite convince City fans that they are back on the right path just yet - especially in contrast to the superb 3-0 win at Anfield last month. The important thing is that I know my players better, says Maresca Maresca’s chance to chase Arsenal in the early stages of the Premier League title race comes down to an important clash against Nottingham Forest , which derailed the club’s hopes under Pep Guardiola last season. The Tricky Trees, with the now Manchester City star Elliot Anderson in their midfield, managed to salvage a draw against City despite Guardiola’s side taking the lead twice through Antoine Semenyo in the first half and Rodri in the second. However, under Maresca, City arrive in the east Midlands with strong away form and a short list of injuries, meaning the City manager can start his strongest squad on paper, even though he suggested on Friday that the concept of a 'strongest' doesn’t really exist. “The important thing is that day after day, I’m knowing the players better. This is the best thing. Then, again, it depends a little bit on the game," Maresca said in a press conference on Friday morning, "We probably have 60, 65 games, so it’s impossible to always use the same players, and I feel lucky because I have so many good players that I can choose which ones we need for different games." Manchester City are chasing down Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table and sit second on 21 points from their opening nine games, having suffered back-to-back losses against Villa and Brighton in recent games. What is Maresca’s strongest side on paper? Although he may not see his side in a black-and-white sense of strongest versus weakest, it begs the question of what actually is the Italian’s most dangerous starting squad on paper? There will inevitably be hesitation towards Donnarumma’s status as number one goalkeeper at the moment, but the rest of the squad is fairly easy to predict - with Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Marc Guehi and Josko Gvardiol running the defensive line. Ayyoub Bouaddi has started life in east Manchester about as perfectly as is possible, but the duo of Anderson and Enzo Fernandez is undeniable here, with Jeremy Doku, Rayan Cherki and Iliman Ndiaye playing ahead. And then, of course, Haaland deserves a place up top and would emulate such priority across the majority of major European football clubs, aside from the obvious Kylian Mbappe at Real Madrid and 2026 Ballon d’Or winner Harry Kane at Bayern Munich .