Man City's Champions League draw exposes urgent squad depth question for Viana

Manchester City’s Champions League league-phase draw has sharpened focus on an unresolved question hanging over the club: does Enzo Maresca have the squad depth to compete on all fronts this season?

The draw handed City a reunion with Rodri at Barcelona, a home tie against PSG, and a visit from Kevin De Bruyne’s Napoli to the Etihad. Sporting Lisbon, Porto, AEK Athens, RB Leipzig and Lens complete a difficult but manageable set of fixtures — provided City can field a competitive side for all of them.

That caveat matters. The summer rebuild has been sweeping. Rodri, Bernardo Silva, Nathan Ake and John Stones — all starters in the 2023 Champions League final — have left the club, and all four will appear in this season’s competition with their new sides. James Trafford, Omar Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez and Savinho have also departed, leaving City short on numbers and experience heading into a congested campaign.

Arrivals Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi have bolstered the group, and Maresca is expected to lean on academy talents Ryan McAidoo, Floyd Samba and Kaden Braithwaite to supplement a senior core he ideally wants at 22 players. By his own admission, City are not there yet.

The stakes of getting it wrong are clear. Last season, Pep Guardiola rotated heavily for a home European tie against Bayer Leverkusen and City were beaten badly — a performance that prompted Guardiola to tell his squad in the dressing room afterwards: “You will have another manager.” They do now, and the memory of that night underlines what can go wrong when squad depth is stretched.

Maresca arrives with genuine European pedigree, having guided Chelsea to the Conference League title and the Club World Cup — dismantling PSG in the final of the latter. But the Champions League is a different challenge, and director of football Hugo Viana faces a pressing decision with the transfer window entering its final days.

City’s draw is enthralling on paper. Whether Viana gives Maresca the tools to do it justice is the question the competition will answer soon enough.