Enzo Maresca wants Manchester City to be active in the transfer market before their Premier League campaign starts on Sunday — after Barcelona finally agreed a £65.4million deal to sign Rodri.City’s 3-0 defeat by Arsenal in the Community Shield laid bare the need for central midfield reinforcements, though a move for Lille and Morocco midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi is nearing completion.Barca are finalising an agreement to land Rodri, who was not with Maresca’s squad in Cardiff.‘Rodri is a player who just won the World Cup and Ballon d’Or,’ said Maresca before news of the agreement broke.‘He’s a top player, all the teams need a player like Rodri, so it’s not about if we miss Rodri or not.’City still hold an interest in Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez, despite the Blues’ Friday deadline to lodge a £120m bid having passed without a formal offer being made. Enzo Maresca has called for more transfer activity after Man City’s 3-0 loss to Arsenal in the Community Shield Man City are closing on a deal for Ayyoub Bouaddi, but Barcelona are expected to make another push this week to sign £70m-rated Rodri‘He [Bouaddi] is still a Lille player,’ Maresca said of the 18-year-old. ‘Any new signing, the sooner they arrive the better because we are starting the Premier League in one week [City begin with a trip to Brighton on Sunday].‘If they start to work with us as soon as possible it’s better so they can understand the way we want to play.’Bouaddi — who was on the bench as Lille drew at Everton in a pre-season friendly on Saturday — wants to join City and the French club’s boss Davide Ancelotti confirmed there had been negotiations between the clubs.Tijjani Reijnders is joining Al Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia for £52m after just one season at the club and Maresca admitted there is business City need to do if they are to compete for the biggest trophies again this season.Elliot Anderson, Nico O’Reilly, Jeremy Doku and Erling Haaland all started the Community Shield, despite only returning to training in midweek.‘Elliot was quite good for his first game,’ said Maresca. ‘We decided to start with four who had just two or three sessions. ODEGAARD STEALS THE SHOW Mikel Arteta said Arsenal can use their Community Shield thrashing of Manchester City to lay down a marker to their rivals ahead of the club’s Premier League title defence. The Gunners eased past Enzo Maresca’s men after first-half goals from Riccardo Calafiori and Kai Havertz, before Martin Odegaard added the gloss on 48 minutes in a ruthless display.The north London club’s victory over the FA Cup holders gave them their second trophy in four months and their 18th Community Shield title overall, leaving Arteta purring.'(I’m) very impressed in the manner that we played, especially in the manner that we competed so that’s a standard for us and if we have the standards at this level I’m sure that we’re going to be really competitive,’ warned Arteta.’Probably there’s more belief (after winning title), you know how to do it, you know what it takes to win it and the contribution of everybody because last season that was the biggest asset of the team. Every single player contributed to make us champions and we know that that’s going to be exactly the same.‘I’m obviously extremely happy with the performance, the results and winning the first trophy. We talked about the desire that we have to start the season and to show ourselves how much we want it, and I certainly saw a lot of positive things there against a top opponent.’Odegaard stole the show as he led from the front after an injury-plagued last season.Arteta believes a different Odegaard will be raring to prove a point this time around.He added: ‘Well, he (Odegaard) missed five or six months for different things and it was extremely difficult for him to get any momentum, so I’m sure this year if we can maintain him fit, available with the players around him, we’re going to see a very different Martin.‘And I sense from the first day that he joined that he has something else in the belly that he wants to prove and show it, because the team needs it as well.’ISAAN KHAN <!- – ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/us/sport/football/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 – ->
‘The reason was because sometimes players prefer to start. The plan was to change all of them after 45 minutes, or an hour maximum.’City started sluggishly, conceding inside the first minute, and Maresca criticised his team for not being ‘switched on’.Captain Ruben Dias said the display was ‘frustrating’. He added: ‘It’s not good enough. Many things are changing, a new manager as well. If there is a lesson to be learned in a final, let it be this one because there are a lot more coming.‘The most important thing is we’re already looking forward and we’ll be ready for our next game.’