City 3, Ipswich 2: Foden Is Back. Maresca's Game Management Isn't

City beat Ipswich 3-2 at the Etihad, and on paper it wasn't close. 70% of the ball, 745 passes to 313, 19 shots to 8, 40 touches in their box to their 15, and 3.53 xG to 1.66. In the first 10 minutes Ipswich completed something like 10 passes. Haaland scored twice, had a third ruled out at 85', and Foden played like the guy who won us a treble. And still I spent 12 minutes of stoppage time with my stomach in my throat, because a team that dominated the ball that hard let a promoted side score 2 goals off 3 shots on target. The players out there did their job. What let Ipswich back in was the structure they were sent out in and the changes that never came.

Start with the good, because there was a lot of it. The Bouaddi, Kovačić and Foden middle 3 was fascinating to watch. Foden was all over the place early: a cross-field switch to Doku, runs in behind into exactly the spaces Ipswich's 3-4-2-1 leaves open, and at 19' he made the same late run into the box he'd been making all game and Doku found him. Doku had been putting Ouattara on skates from the first whistle, so it was only a matter of time. That goal ended a 10-month drought for Foden, and he was so due. At 32' he slid another ball through to Haaland in the half-space, and two minutes later Kovačić won the ball back, rolled off a foul, and crossed for Haaland to head in at 34'. Walton should have done better on that one, Sofascore has it down as an error leading to a goal, but it's Mr. Inevitable. He doesn't need you to make it hard.

Then you look at 21'. Two minutes after Foden scored, Ouattara found Maeda and it was 1-1. Guéhi had to do better on the ball in behind, and the ground went silent. By my count that's the 4th or 5th time this season we've conceded within 5 minutes of scoring, and that's not bad luck anymore, it's a pattern. I think it's Maresca. His structure after we score is to go right back after the next one, push everybody up, keep the foot down. I love the ambition, but it leaves us wide open in exactly the moment a team like Ipswich is desperate to get a foothold. We need to control a game after we score instead of inviting the counterpunch. Kill the game for 5 minutes, then go again.

70% of the ball, 3.53 xG, and we still let a promoted side score 2 goals off 3 shots on target.

Ndiaye is the other story. I honestly love watching him play football. He shifts right to left, left to right, and the ball looks attached to his foot. There's some Cherki in there, but the more I watch him the more I see Riyad Mahrez. He kept winning fouls the way Grealish used to, just driving at people over and over, and he started the game with a double nutmeg inside 4 minutes. The final product isn't there yet though. He went 0 for 4 on target, sat on 1.09 xG without scoring, and lost the ball 21 times, more than anyone on the pitch. He did get the assist at 69', driving from his own half after Nunes headed a switched ball on, and it took a lucky bounce, but he needed that one. At 96' he had to play it back to Haaland and shot wide instead, and at 98' he had another chance to square it and didn't. It reminds me of Doku two seasons ago. I think he's a big-game starter, but he needs a consistent run of games to find his form, and you don't get that by rotating in and out.

Foden was my man of the match, and I'm not overthinking it. 81 from me, 1 behind Haaland's 82. One goal, 3 key passes, 0.54 xA, and he looked like himself again for the first time in a long time. He's back. He still has the same problem beating the first man on corners that he's had for years, but his inswinger at 55' was a much better delivery and O'Reilly only just put it wide. On his position, though, he shouldn't take the 10 off Cherki. Where I think he's best is the 8, and that's where he's going to start competing with Enzo. Kovačić went off hurt at 50' after one of his best games in a while, assured and clean, 3 for 3 on dribbles and 3 key passes before he left. Hopefully he's alright. But if he's out, Anderson steps in next to Bouaddi, and Kovačić and Bouaddi are both really cover for the Anderson, Enzo and Cherki midfield anyway. Foden pushing Enzo for that 8 is the real midfield battle now.

Nunes deserves his own paragraph. He shut Enciso down all game, and he's become a genuine force defending: assured, confident, physical, and he backs himself in every 50/50. When he went down at 76' my stomach dropped. He's been so good recently that losing him for any stretch would be a huge miss at both ends. Dias was hitting bangers from above the box too. Walton had to make an elite save on one at 17', and he had another go at 43'.

Now the part that cost us the comfortable afternoon. The first 10 minutes of the second half were flat. Ipswich came out pressing in a different shape, we stopped keeping the ball, and we'd already given up 2 corners by 54'. At 60' I was writing that we needed to raise the standards, because we were giving the ball away, giving too much space, chillin'. The legs were gone, and that's on the management. After Wednesday against PSG, Haaland needed to come off. He had 2 goals, the game was 3-1, and he stayed on for all 90 plus 12. Haaland and Semenyo both picked up knocks, and I don't think either of them needed to be out there. When Doku came off at 77', it should have been Allan coming on, not Semenyo. Maresca's in-game management in this one was terrible, 43 from me, and a 3-1 game that should have been put to bed turned into a 3-2 game we had to survive.

A 3-1 game that should have been put to bed turned into a 3-2 game we had to survive.

You could see the fatigue in the decisions. At 84' Semenyo has to at least get a shot on goal, even if he's offside. At 85' Haaland thought he had his hat trick after about 4 shots at it, and VAR ruled it out for offside. From where I was sitting it was Enzo who was off, and that's lazy. At 87' Guéhi brought down Fatawu, VAR confirmed the penalty, and Guéhi was having a struggle bus game. 45 from me, the lowest of any starter. Flemming went straight down the middle like it was nothing and suddenly it was 3-2 with 12 minutes of stoppage time on the board. Enzo had been lazy since about 83' and I'm not a fan of effort like that at all, not when the game is still live. He gets a 40. The one guy who stayed switched on was Bouaddi. At 100' he read what was around him, knew exactly what to do and when, and helped close it out. He played all 90 plus stoppage and won 8 of his 14 duels.

Three points is three points, and it always buffs out. But this is the kind of game that tells you something. City are good enough to dominate anyone on the ball, and Foden coming back to his best makes that midfield scarier than it's been all season. What needs fixing is what we do after we score, and what Maresca does when the legs go. Fix those two things and the 3-2s become 4-0s.