Manchester City forward Antoine Semenyo says Enzo Maresca’s attacking philosophy is “music to my ears” after making an encouraging start to life under the club’s new manager.
City were beaten by Inter Milan on penalties in Maresca’s first match in charge in Hong Kong, but their performance offered an early indication of the attacking approach the Italian intends to introduce following Pep Guardiola’s departure.
Semenyo played the first half and repeatedly troubled Inter full-back Andy Diouf with his pace and direct running. His work helped create the opportunity for Divin Mubama to score for City.
Ryan McAidoo, who came on as a substitute, also impressed. Maresca said afterwards that the two players were the “kind of wingers I love” because they are “very aggressive” and willing to take opponents on in “one-v-one” situations.
Semenyo said Maresca’s use of wide players was one of the main reasons he was excited by his appointment.
“When he got appointed, that was the first thing I thought about because when you’ve played Chelsea previously when he was there, his wide men were always high and quite free.
“So that was one of the things that excited me the most when he got appointed and it’s exciting for me as a winger. I get to have one-v-one situations most of the game and I am looking forward to it.
“I have had individual meetings with him on how he wants to set up, how he wants to play his wide men and just overall as a team.
“I think his ideas are great, quite similar to Pep, but if you watched the [Inter] game, you would have seen a couple of his ideas play out and it was good. Enzo is just [stay] out wide and when you get the ball, just create opportunities. So it is music to my ears.”
Semenyo grateful to Bournemouth
Semenyo joined Manchester City from Bournemouth for £65m during the January transfer window, with Guardiola having beaten competition from Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea to sign him.
The forward said interest in him began in early December, when “a lot of talks” took place, before he decided the following month that Manchester City was the club he wanted to join.
He remains grateful to Bournemouth for helping him establish himself in the Premier League.
“I owe them everything to be honest,” Semenyo said of former club Bournemouth. “They helped my Premier League career flourish and obviously the management, the staff behind the scenes, they were all amazing, they made everything so smooth.”
Semenyo scored 21 goals for club and country last season. His campaign included the winning goal in the FA Cup final victory over Chelsea, which he described as a “dream come true”, as well as success in the Carabao Cup.
Speaking at Ahmad Tea’s Preparation is Everything event in Hong Kong, Semenyo said joining Manchester City represented the next major step in his career.
“I think for me, I just wanted the next step to be the big one and Manchester City was the option. Pep spoke to me beforehand and he said, ‘look, when you come, I am going to make you a better player’.
“You want to get better, you want to improve every season and he definitely helped me with that in the first five months, but obviously sad for him to leave.”
Semenyo’s faith
Semenyo is a committed Christian and has faith-based tattoos across his body. He was baptised by a local pastor last December, something he had wanted to do “for so long” but had been unable to arrange because of his football commitments.
“I know that I am obviously walking with God at the moment, and I want to maximise my faith as much as I can, so practising gives me the opportunity to do that.
“When I got the opportunity, I made sure I took it. I am so happy I have done it and I am in the walk of faith now and it’s been amazing.”
The Manchester City forward says he prays before matches and at the team hotel on the night before games, sometimes alongside team-mates Jeremy Doku and Marc Guehi. He said doing so gives them “maximum strength”.
Asked whether he puts his faith ahead of football, Semenyo replied: “Yeah, 100%. I wouldn’t be here without him [God], so there is always going to be faith and football after.
“I think God gave me the talent to be a footballer; he gave me all the skills, he gave me the mindset and the mentality, so I owe it to him to perform and maximise his words to the world.”
