In June 2023, Manchester City lifted the historic treble: Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League. That team was the peak of Pep Guardiola’s philosophy — total possession, perfect positional play, football that looked written on paper before it was played on grass.
Three years on, this is no longer just a story of a changing style — it is the end of an era. In the summer of 2026, Guardiola left after ten years, succeeded by his former treble-season assistant Enzo Maresca. Yet his final season (2025/26) was no mere farewell: it was a full tactical rebuild whose foundations still define City today. This is what changed, why, and what Maresca inherits.
The crisis that forced the change
To understand City 2026, you first have to understand City 2024/25.
In December 2024, City lost four matches in a row across all competitions — for the first time since 2006, and the first time ever for a Guardiola team. It wasn’t a slump but a structural symptom: key players had aged, the tempo had accelerated, and the pressing that built City’s empire was meeting teams faster than them.
During those months, Rodri — Guardiola’s most important balance player — tore his ACL and was sidelined for months. Without Rodri, City lost the heart that turns possession into control.
On November 21, 2024, the club extended Guardiola’s contract through June 2027, the manager insisting he would not leave mid-crisis. Yet when 2025/26 ended, he departed a year early, after a decade of trophies. The rebuild he started is the foundation City stand on today.
Summer 2025 signings — dynamism over positioning
City’s summer 2025 transfers revealed the new philosophy clearly:
- Tijjani Reijnders (from AC Milan for £46m): a mobile box-to-box midfielder who carried the ball through the lines.
- Rayan Cherki (from Lyon): a young playmaker who produced 32 goal contributions in 44 games.
- Rayan Aït-Nouri (from Wolves): an attacking left-back.
- James Trafford (from Burnley for £31m): a goalkeeper comfortable with the ball at his feet, suited to playing out from the back.
- Gianluigi Donnarumma (from PSG): a European-level keeper after Ederson’s departure.
The common thread: dynamism, speed, and the ability to carry the ball through pressure. Not possession for its own sake, but players capable of breaking lines horizontally and vertically — a direct answer to what City lacked in 2024/25.
Not everything from that window survived: Reijnders left after one season, joining Al Qadsiah of Saudi Arabia for around €61m, while Trafford lost the No. 1 spot to Donnarumma and became Leeds United’s first-choice goalkeeper. The project kept evolving.
Summer 2026 — the project keeps evolving
In the summer of 2026, under new management, City attacked the market again:
- Enzo Fernández (from Chelsea for £125m): a midfielder who combines ball-carrying with playmaking from deep.
- Ayyoub Bouaddi (for £85.6m): one of the most complete young midfielders in Europe.
- Elliot Anderson (from Nottingham Forest): energy and line-breaking runs with the ball.
The key point: the profile Guardiola sought in Reijnders — a midfielder who carries the ball through pressure — is exactly what the club doubled down on in 2026. The philosophy didn’t change when the man embodying it left; only the body did.
The shape — a narrow 4-2-3-1
The formation Guardiola crafted in 2025/26 — which Maresca continues to work with — is a 4-2-3-1, but with details that make it unlike any previous system.
In the build-up phase, the team shapes into a narrow 4-3-2-1:
- Foden drops from No. 10 to form a deep midfield three. With Bernardo Silva gone to Real Madrid, these roles now belong to Enzo Fernández, Bouaddi, and Anderson alongside Nico González.
- The wingers (Doku and Cherki) move into the inside channels early — they don’t stay on the touchlines.
- Haaland stays high alone, pinning the opposition centre-backs and stopping them from stepping out.
- The full-backs push forward to provide width.
This narrow setup creates a numerical advantage in midfield against any team that tries to press high — exactly what City lacked in 2024/25 against sides like Arsenal and Liverpool.
How City build
Building from the back no longer means constant short passing the way it did in 2022 and 2023. Instead:
1. The goalkeeper and centre-backs open short.
2. The double pivot drops in front of the centre-backs — Bernardo and Nico González last season, Enzo Fernández and the new arrivals now.
3. The ball-carrier from deep — Reijnders’ addition in 2025/26, now continued by Enzo Fernández and Bouaddi. Old City rotated the ball until space opened; modern City carries the ball through the space.
4. Inverted wingers (Doku and Cherki) move into the inside channels to create overloads with Foden.
5. Haaland stays high, receives long balls, or opens space with his dropping movements.
The result: City still control possession, but possession isn’t the end goal anymore. It’s a means of generating fast attacks the moment the ball is won back.
Haaland’s role — fewer touches, more impact
In 2022/23, Haaland was a goalscorer who finished what the machine created. Today, his role is more tactically layered:
- He pins the centre-backs and prevents them from stepping into midfield.
- He opens space for Foden and Cherki with his deep movements.
- He’s the high outlet in fast transitions — one long pass can turn defence into attack.
His touches per match may be lower than in the treble season, but the value of each touch is higher. And with a contract running until 2034, the Norwegian remains the cornerstone any project is built around — regardless of who sits in the manager’s seat.
The pragmatic edge — City accepting trade-offs
One of the clearest shifts in Guardiola’s final-season philosophy was his pragmatic willingness to surrender possession at times. In a 1-1 draw with Arsenal in 2025/26, City gave up long stretches of the ball — something almost unthinkable from a Guardiola team historically.
The reason? Guardiola read that Arsenal could hurt City in an open game, so he chose to control space rather than the ball. The season’s end proved his reading: Arsenal finished 2025/26 as Premier League champions, with City second.
This pragmatism isn’t regression — it’s tactical maturity. The lesson Guardiola leaves behind is clear: possession against top teams can be a trap, and organised defence plus fast transitions can be just as effective.
The challenges City face now
Despite the intelligent rebuild, City face real challenges in 2026/27:
1. Rodri still struggles with recurring injuries. Without him, the team loses a balance point no one fully replaces — not even Nico González, the “mini-Rodri”.
2. Bernardo Silva’s departure: he joined Real Madrid on a free after nine years and around 460 appearances — hard to replace not just for his talent, but for his understanding of every role in the system.
3. The title race is harder than ever. Arsenal are the reigning champions, Liverpool are at the top level, and City are no longer the team that wins “automatically.”
4. The off-pitch cloud: in September 2026 an independent commission found the club guilty of serious historical financial breaches; sanctions are pending and the club is appealing. The uncertainty hangs over everything.
5. The generational gap: the treble-era core (Haaland, Foden, Rodri) needs to integrate quickly with the new arrivals (Enzo Fernández, Bouaddi, Anderson) under an entirely new manager.
Conclusion — an era ended, a philosophy continues
City 2026 is not a copy of City 2023 — and that, in itself, is Guardiola’s final achievement. The greatest managers are the ones who evolve their philosophy before results force them to. The Catalan read football’s transformation precisely: speed over elegance, transitions over possession, pragmatism over idealism.
Now Maresca — who lived the treble from the inside as an assistant — inherits a team built on those principles. The question is no longer “what will Guardiola build?” but “can the philosophy survive the departure of its author?” The answer will emerge across 2026/27 and beyond.
What’s certain: watching Manchester City today is unlike any era before, and the study of this evolution will remain a coaching reference for years to come.