What does a Maresca midfield look like?

The plan seems clear for Rodri – look to retain one of the best players in world football rather than sell him.

But there will have to be contingencies in place.

One of these will be the presence of Elliot Anderson, while Manchester City are monitoring 18-year-old Lille midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi, who impressed for Morocco in the World Cup.

To understand how Rodri, Anderson and someone like Bouaddi might come together, it is key to understand Maresca’s game model.

As a disciple of positional play, he draws comparisons between his football and chess.

“There are a lot of similarities,” Maresca said. “The most important is positional play and strategy.

“For a coach, it’s important to have the mentality of a chess player: develop a plan, study counter-moves, choose the arrangement of the pieces.”

In the World Cup final against Argentina, we saw the many positional rotations Rodri enabled. Here he is playing as a third centre-back as Spain build out from the back. [BBC]

Maresca’s strategy has largely been rooted in an on-the-ball shape that looks like a 3-2-2-3.

One of Rodri’s most useful qualities in a Maresca side would be his ability to move between these predefined positions on the pitch.

Throughout the World Cup, for example, we saw him drop into the backline when former City team-mate Aymeric Laporte pushed up with the ball.

Naturally, Rodri spent most of the game in a holding midfield position, but when space opened up he was more than capable of pushing forward too.

Here we see Rodri on the ball in a more natural defensive midfield position. [BBC]

At their best, Maresca’s sides use rotations of players within the 3-2-2-3. His innovation often comes in the form of creating this shape in new ways.

Defending as a 4-4-2 before attacking in the 3-2-2-3, it was John Stones who stepped up from centre-back into a midfield pair with Rodri during City’s Treble-winning season, when Maresca was assistant manager.

At Chelsea, one of Maresca’s more unique tweaks involved playing Moises Caicedo at right-back. Defending with a back four before again attacking in a 3-2-2-3 shape, Caicedo would move from right-back into one of the holding midfield positions.

As Mikel Oyarzabal drops deep, Rodri carries the ball up the pitch, attacking the space that opened up. The shape remains largely the same, but Rodri is now in a forward position. [BBC]