Maresca admits Manchester City ‘a work in progress’ after stoppage-time win over Bournemouth

Enzo Maresca said Manchester City remain "a work in progress" after Sunday's last-gasp victory over Bournemouth at the Etihad Stadium in his first game in charge when Josko Gvardiol's 91st-minute strike secured the win following Marc Guéhi's 85th-minute equaliser and Marcus Tavernier's first-half opener.

Maresca compared the performance to last Sunday's 3-0 Community Shield defeat to Arsenal and said his assessment had not changed. "I feel in the same position as after Arsenal," he said. He added: "It’s normal you judge after results but I don’t see big changes. Unfortunately, this is a work in progress and I’m looking for solutions. For sure when you win games it helps."

The manager reacted to the pre-match reception at the Etihad, when City unfurled a large tifo bearing his image that read: "Welcome back Enzo." He said: "It is the perfect day. I was very pleased to see the banner when the game started. We gave them [fans] the joy at the end. It was quite emotional. The spirit was fantastic. It’s a game we deserved to win [but] you don’t need to wait for the last five minutes. We missed chances, then they scored and it became more complicated."

Maresca defended his side's response to conceding and pointed to player readiness as a factor. "If you think of the Premier League – it won’t happen that you will concede nothing. The goal we conceded was their first shot. They had two or three dangerous moments but it’s how you react. We’ve still got [Erling] Haaland, Elliot [Anderson], Marc [Guéhi], Nico O’Reilly [who all started], who are in pre-season still. It’s a huge difference in terms of physicality and we are going to get better and better," he said.

The manager also explained a tactical experiment involving Guéhi, deploying him in an unfamiliar midfield role. "I know Marc from [ Crystal] Palace and I always thought he could play as a midfielder because he is very good," Maresca said. "So we tried it for a few days and I think he was quite good. He gives us a solution for the future,."

Marco Rose, in his first game managing Bournemouth, said his side had come close to claiming a first away win against City and pointed to specific defensive lapses. "We’re competitors, we came here to win for the first time," the German said. "We were in a good way to do so. But we did many good things. We have a lot of things to improve. At the end, how the game went was quite unlucky to lose that way. We had two situations – one corner kick and one attacking [move] – when we defended too passively. "We need to defend the corner better and the second goal was just too passive. We always try to push up – we want to defend higher. Here you need to find the right triggers and it’s hard to press. We did it really well until the end."

The result provided Maresca with victory in his opening match in charge of Manchester City, while Rose's Bournemouth left the Etihad having narrowly missed what would have been a first away win against City in his first game as their manager.