{"id":1192165,"date":"2026-09-07T22:43:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1192165\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T22:43:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T22:43:15","slug":"maresca-eyes-rest-for-busy-dad-haaland-as-manchester-city-prepare-for-porto-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1192165\/","title":{"rendered":"Maresca eyes rest for busy dad Haaland as Manchester City prepare for Porto | Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enzo Maresca believes Erling Haaland has become \u201ccomplete\u201d as his priorities have changed after the birth of the Manchester City<\/a> No 9\u2019s son two years ago.<\/p>\n

Haaland has again started the campaign in prolific form, scoring three goals in City\u2019s opening three Premier League victories. In three of the 26\u2011year\u2011old\u2019s four previous seasons at City he has won the Premier League golden boot. Maresca pointed to how the birth of his son in 2024 changed the Norwegian\u2019s motivation.<\/p>\n

The manager said: \u201cHe\u2019s a man now. He\u2019s a dad. When he arrived here [in summer 2022] he was not a dad and now he\u2019s a dad and life completely changes because the priority becomes his son. I\u2019m happy for him because he was already top as a player and as a boy but now you can see that he is complete. He is a family man, he is still scoring goals so I\u2019m very happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

City are at Porto in the opening league\u2011phase game of the Champions League<\/a> on Tuesday. Haaland has played every competitive minute of the campaign so far, and Maresca said he will be rested at some point, particularly as as the striker was part of the Norway team that reached the World Cup quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

The Italian said: \u201cIt\u2019s not easy for Erling or for any of the players that play for club and international teams. I think it is normal that you [may] see these players start to be tired. So, it\u2019s correct to give them some rest. It can be one game out or one week away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on which moment we are in but the priority is to allow the players to be good and happy. When you see them tired the risk of injury increases, and we need players who are 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Maresca\u2019s options if Haaland is rested against Porto would be selecting Antoine Semenyo at centre-forward, or fielding Phil Foden or Rayan Cherki as a false 9, he pointed to the in-game control the two latter players can give City when required.<\/p>\n

Nico O\u2019Reilly pulled up with an injury before the Coventry match but will \u2018probably\u2019 be available to face Porto. Photograph: Martin Rickett\/PA<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is always a gameplan and Rayan can drop a little bit to manage the tempo and the game,\u201d the 46-year-old said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe [also] need Rayan in the position to be dangerous \u2013 the last game against Coventry [a 1-0 win] we made contact with him five or six times between the lines and created chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on the game. Against Coventry, it was good for him to drop a little bit and manage the tempo and not always be a reference for the other team. We need him in the right position because he gives us the quality. Phil can also do that \u2013 and the last pass between the lines is very good so we are lucky that we have two very good players that can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In his first campaign as head coach, Francesco Farioli led Porto to their 31st title, and they have a maximum 15 points from their opening five Primeira Liga games.<\/p>\n

Maresca was asked if City will be favourites at the Est\u00e1dio do Drag\u00e3o. \u201cWe are here to do our best,\u201d he said. \u201cThe game will dictate the favourite. This is a hard place to come. This season they started very good. In the last 14, 15 games in Europe they just lost one so we are going to try our best and try to win the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that Porto is very good in set pieces. I think it has become part of the game now so we need to do our best, defend in the right way, score goals as much as we can from set pieces because it\u2019s part of the game and you need to be perfect because all teams are prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maresca said Nico O\u2019Reilly would \u201cprobably\u201d be available after missing the Coventry game with a late fitness problem, but the manager said he was \u201cnot sure\u201d about J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku\u2019s availability after injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enzo Maresca believes Erling Haaland has become \u201ccomplete\u201d as his priorities have changed after the birth of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1192166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,16,15],"class_list":["post-1192165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117232181821684296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1192165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1192165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1192166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1192165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1192165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1192165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}