Why Maresca? What Man City fans can expect from Guardiola's successor

Maresca is part Italian, part Spanish in his approach to coaching and life. His Spanish influence stems from his family, and his exposure to Guardiola's Barcelona while he was at Sevilla and Malaga during the peak years of his playing career. Facing a Barcelona side regarded by some as the greatest club team of all time opened Maresca's eyes to a new way of playing, and helped spark the trend for technical, possession-based teams dominating at the highest level. In Spain, Maresca also met his trusted assistant, Willy Caballero, and his children were born there. Spanish is now the main language spoken at home within his large family. It was also his "football father", former Manchester City and West Ham manager Manuel Pellegrini, who identified during Maresca's playing days that he had the qualities to become a coach. This grounding helps explain the similarities between Maresca and Guardiola. Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has been open in his assessment of Enzo Maresca, with the Italian returning to the club following two previous stints - first with the academy and then alongside Guardiola as his assistant coach. Khaldoon said: "He is one of Pep's assistants at one point in his career so definitely - he will tell you - he is going to have taken a lot of inspiration in the philosophy of Pep, and you see that in his football. "But he has also evolved his own philosophy. …