Rayan Cherki's Masterclass at Selhurst Park
Selhurst Park had spent 45 minutes watching Manchester City huff and puff. Then Rayan Cherki picked up the ball and turned the place into his own private stage.
By the time he walked off eight minutes from the end, the numbers only hinted at the damage. Three shots on target. Three key passes. Three successful dribbles. Twenty-nine ball carries, covering 2.2 kilometres. But the statistics missed the feeling: every time he received the ball, Palace braced for impact.
The first goal was pure theatre. Cherki took a Phil Foden pass on the edge of the box, dropped his shoulder and began to slalom. One, two, three Palace defenders beaten, the ball apparently stitched to his boots. Just as he seemed to be losing his footing, he stabbed a finish past Dean Henderson, catching the goalkeeper cold with a poked effort that oozed audacity as much as technique.
Palace looked stunned. Selhurst fell quiet. City had found their conductor.
The second goal owed something to fortune, but only after Cherki had created the situation himself. He again carved out a pocket of space 20 yards from goal, again chose the bold option. His strike took a heavy deflection off Chris Richards and wrong-footed Henderson, but the key moment came earlier: he backed himself to shoot when the safer pass was on. Five minutes, two goals, game over.
On Sky Sports, Jamie Redknapp reached for the biggest names he could find.
“Rayan Cherki painted a masterpiece,” he said. “It was an incredible goal. He felt like the difference because the goals came at such an important time. He had such an amazing effect on the game. He is a genius, the things that he can do with a football are just incredible. There are not many Premier League players who can do this.”
Redknapp went straight to Eden Hazard for comparison – that same low centre of gravity, that same ability to hide the ball and then sneak it into the corner when defenders thought they had him trapped. Then he pulled out a name from City’s past: Georgi Kinkladze, the cult hero who could “get past people in a telephone box”. The implication was clear. City have another artist on their hands.
And that word kept coming back: freedom.
From Guardiola’s grid to Maresca’s canvas
Enzo Maresca wants City to dominate the ball like Pep Guardiola did, but the resemblance largely ends there. Where Guardiola built a machine, Maresca is happy to let a few wires hang loose if it means unlocking a defence.
He is not going to bark at Cherki for a mazy run or a risky pass. Guardiola did exactly that last season when Cherki pulled out a rabona cross to set up Foden against Sunderland, a flash of street football that earned a public scolding rather than a pat on the back.
Give Cherki freedom and he becomes a match-winner. Not every dribble comes off, not every ambitious pass lands, but that is the point. City need someone willing to force open games when opponents retreat into a low block and invite sterile domination.
Last season, Cherki’s debut campaign in Manchester hinted at something bigger. Even with Guardiola’s handbrake on, the Lyon academy graduate produced a combined 25 goals and assists. He did it while starting only 19 Premier League games and just four in the Champions League, constantly rotated, constantly asked to obey strict positional orders.
Under Guardiola, he was often chained to the touchline or frozen in a designated zone. Inverting too early, drifting into traffic, even simply improvising in the wrong area risked disrupting a pre-planned passing pattern. The message was clear: stay in your box.
Guardiola once summed up his thinking by invoking Lionel Messi: “I like the simplicity because I learned from Lionel Messi that I never make a mistake with the simple things.” For Cherki, that philosophy meant he was never going to be the side’s chief creator. He was a piece in the structure, not the architect.
Maresca’s first major decision was to rip up that script.
He moved Cherki inside, directly behind Erling Haaland, and told him to go and find the game. Tight spaces were no longer a danger zone; they were an invitation. Instead of counting his touches, Maresca wanted him to multiply them.
The defensive work still matters. Against Palace, Cherki tracked and harried Adam Wharton diligently, showing he understood the bargain. Run hard without the ball, and you earn the right to play with it. Maresca’s reward is trust in the final third, where Cherki is now encouraged to take responsibility rather than defer to the system.
The return of the free spirit
Maresca is not alone. Across Europe, managers are quietly nudging football away from the Guardiola template and back towards the individualist.
At Paris Saint-Germain, Luis Enrique’s fluid structure is built to isolate Khvicha Kvaratskhelia one-on-one, then let the Georgian roam into central pockets when Nuno Mendes flies forward on the overlap. Vincent Kompany gives Michael Olise similar licence at Bayern Munich, allowing him to drift and probe rather than hugging a chalk line.
In Barcelona, Hansi Flick has handed Lamine Yamal the freedom to read space for himself in a vertical, aggressive system. The teenager is encouraged to interpret, not just execute. Alongside Cherki, they form a new wave of playmakers trusted to colour outside the lines.
Guardiola’s obsession with control delivered era-defining football at Barcelona, Bayern and City. His ideas reshaped the sport. The downside was the wave of imitators, the copy-and-paste positional play that squeezed the life out of the game’s natural mavericks.
Cherki’s performance at Selhurst Park felt like a rebellion against that drift. Every jink, every feint, every risk carried a reminder: football can be an art form, not just a tactical exercise.
Guardiola may insist that simplicity never lies, that the safe option is the correct one. Cherki, under Maresca, is making a different argument with every touch. You can still be a showman and a teammate. You can still win matches by trusting the genius who refuses to colour inside the lines.
