Beijing time (CEST) on August 14th, Manchester City is reportedly interested in signing Chelsea midfielder Enzo for £120 million, with head coach Maresca eager to reunite with his former player at Manchester City. Earlier, James Sharpe, a renowned journalist for the Daily Mail, published a column titled "Can Enzo really replace Rodri? Is he worth £120 million? Enzo Maresca thinks he is – here's why," detailing the deeper reasons behind this transfer.

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The deadline has been set: Friday at 5 PM. If Enzo Maresca is truly so eager to reunite with Enzo, he must act before then. Of course, the asking price for this deal is £120 million.

Relations between the two clubs have seen better times. Maresca resigned as Chelsea manager in January, intent on coaching Manchester City. In June, Chelsea issued a strongly worded statement confirming an agreement on compensation, allowing him to move to the Etihad Stadium to replace Guardiola, with the statement not even mentioning his name.

So, if Manchester City chooses to pay this £120 million, what will they get? The answer might be what some see as a "character player."

A player who was red-carded in a World Cup final and tried to get Chelsea teammate Marc Cucurella, playing for Argentina in the same game, sent off; a player who repeatedly received yellow cards throughout the season for dissent towards referees; a player who, after equalizing in a World Cup semi-final, made a cupped-ear gesture to provoke England fans; and more critically, two years ago, after Argentina won the Copa América, he was accused of racial discrimination by his own club teammates for singing with them on live broadcast.

However, Maresca will get a player he trusts more than anyone. To succeed, he needs players he can trust. Despite the racial discrimination controversy in 2024, Maresca still handed Enzo the captain's armband in the opening Premier League match against Manchester City, which speaks volumes.

Maresca recently joked that Erling Haaland could not be his captain at Manchester City because he demands the captain to run over for updated instructions after every goal, unless the captain himself scored – and Haaland would obviously score many goals. However, at Chelsea, even when team captain Reece James was on the field, Maresca often called Enzo over after the team scored.

Enzo was often Chelsea's midfield engine. Last season, despite Maresca's mid-season departure, Chelsea ranked last in total distance covered by Premier League teams, but Enzo's individual distance covered was among the top ten in the league.

In Maresca's 18 months at Chelsea, no one made more appearances in the league than Enzo, and only Mohamed Salah and Bruno Fernandes created more chances from open play across the entire league.

It appears Maresca will have to cope without Manchester City's most influential midfielder in recent years, Rodri, in what will be one of the toughest transitions in world football. Barcelona is in deep talks about bringing Rodri back to Spain. Losing the world's most reliable tempo-setter, Maresca must find another way to make Manchester City's midfield work.

The club has already spent £116 million to sign Elliott Anderson from Nottingham Forest, but he alone is far from enough. Manchester City is also negotiating to sign the £85 million Moroccan World Cup star Ayoub Bouadi, an excellent interceptor with clean distribution. Enzo is clearly not a like-for-like replacement for Rodri.

Both are authoritative and dominant, but in very different ways. Like Rodri, Enzo is always at the heart of the team's attack, but he more often appears in crucial areas for the final shot.

In the full 2024-25 season under Maresca, Enzo was involved in 200 of Chelsea's attacking moves that ended in a shot, whether by taking the shot himself, creating a chance, or initiating the move. Nearly 60% of these moves involved him personally shooting or assisting. His expected goals also ranked first among midfielders last season.

In contrast, in the 2023-24 season before Rodri's serious injury, although he topped the team's attacking involvement, only 37% of that was shooting or creating chances. That season, Rodri averaged more than twice as many passes as Enzo in the 2024-25 season, had a much higher passing accuracy, and had more than three times as many passes that broke through the opponent's defense.

Rodri is deeply involved in Manchester City's attacking tasks, but mostly in the early stages of building play.

In Maresca's only full season at Chelsea, Enzo was second only to Palmer in attacking involvement.

However, the Chelsea midfielder is much more direct on the ball, with a higher percentage of forward passes than Rodri, and more passes into the box. Unsurprisingly, Enzo also commits more fouls.

As a colleague who often watches Enzo said: "Rodri is like a dishwasher, tidying everything up neatly. Enzo, on the other hand, smashes those plates."

One of the biggest differences between the two – and something Maresca hopes to fully utilize – is Enzo's exceptional ability to make late runs into the attack. Rodri enters the penalty area less than 0.5 times per game, while Enzo does so at least five times, and often converts these into goals.

Like another Chelsea superstar who moved to Manchester City, his ability to score from late runs has a touch of Lampard about it.

In the away game against Burnley in November, when teammate Marc Guiu burst into the box, Enzo completed a late run to score from behind.

When Rodri is healthy and in top form, Guardiola prefers to use him as a single defensive midfielder, giving players like Bernardo Silva the freedom to roam forward, confident that Rodri will clean up behind them. When Rodri is unavailable, Guardiola often switches to a double pivot midfield.

Maresca also adopted the same strategy in the pre-season, fielding a midfield pairing of Kovacic and Reijnders against Atlético Madrid in Korea. The former was positioned deeper, while the latter was poised to surge forward. It will be interesting to see which of these two positions Anderson occupies (if he plays) in Sunday's Community Shield match against Arsenal.

Technically, Enzo is more similar to Manchester City's out-of-favor midfielder Reijnders, who is about to transfer to Saudi club Al-Qadsiah. If you compare their heatmaps (see figure below), both are most comfortable receiving the ball in the half-spaces.

Rodri proved at the World Cup that he still has the ability to be the best player on the top stage, but due to the heat and high altitude when playing in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the overall pace of the tournament was slower, allowing him to shine.

However, the Premier League is much more brutal, and now in the Premier League, explosive "beast" players are far more effective than tempo-setting "metronomes."

Therefore, if Rodri leaves, Maresca seems to have found a solution to replace him – it just means Manchester City will have to pay over £300 million.

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