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Pep Guardiola needed to shake things up after his weary Manchester City side began to flag this season and Omar Marmoush served a reminder of his talent after the Spaniard dropped two of his key players to the bench on Saturday.
Star striker Erling Haaland’s prolific form has ground to a halt, while Phil Foden has also looked a shadow of his usual self in recent games as City have fallen back in the Premier League title race.
Manager Guardiola felt the meeting with bottom side Wolves was the ideal time to give the duo a rest and his decision to put them on the bench was vindicated.
Marmoush, 26, had to stand up after starting in place of Haaland and the Egyptian showed how vital a role he can play in the remainder of this season by scoring his first top-flight goal of the campaign in the 2-0 victory.
“Last season when he arrived he was unbelievable for two or three months,” said Guardiola. “Without him it would have been impossible to achieve qualification for the Champions League or reach the FA Cup final.
“He is a special player, not old, not young, but has margin to improve and a sense of goal [with] dynamic energy in his runs, which is really good.
“I see him more as a striker than a proper winger but he is a guy for transition actions. I am so happy for him.”
‘Important to score’, says Marmoush
Loud cheers rang around Etihad Stadium when Marmoush was named player of the match in the dying minutes.
Before the Wolves game, the former Eintracht Frankfurt player’s only other goal this season came in the fourth-round EFL Cup victory at Swansea back in October.
Haaland’s netbusting form has understandably meant Marmoush has been deployed mainly from the bench this season, but the tables were turned on Saturday.
Marmoush started and it was Haaland who was introduced as a substitute on 73 minutes, extending his run in front of goal to just one penalty in his past eight matches.
The Norwegian is very much a box player, managing only 14 touches of the ball in both of the recent defeats at Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League and at Manchester United a week ago.
Marmoush, though, was much more involved by managing 40 touches in his 74 minutes on the pitch against Wolves.
He had been on Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) duty recently, where he scored twice in the competition to help Egypt to a fourth-place finish.
On his first league start since August, he converted a poacher’s effort to set City on track to all three points, after they failed to win their previous four top-flight matches.
“Important to score a goal and help the team,” said Marmoush. “I am very happy to be here after Afcon and help my team.
“I saw that Matheus [Nunes] broke through and it was a good finish. Happy for the goal and happy for the three points.”
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Guehi ‘a guy you can rely on’
Saturday also saw City’s two eye-catching January signings starting together for the first time, with Marc Guehi helping the side to a clean sheet on his debut.
The 25-year-old displayed a calmness and assuredness at the heart of the defence, completing a match-high 95 passes from 102 attempted, while also winning possession back four times and contributing two interceptions.
Guehi fills a gaping hole left in City’s defence following injuries to Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol but he looks to have hit the ground running, as has Antoine Semenyo, who has now scored three goals for the club since joining from Bournemouth.
“Antoine made an incredible [impact] at Bournemouth and it’s not necessary to tell [you] about Marc and who he is,” said Guardiola. “The captain from Crystal Palace, national team for your country and he knows everything, you had a feeling from day one.
“They have not come for six months, they’ve come for many years so the transfer is a really good prize and they are the perfect age – 25, 26 – so an incredible signing for Manchester City for many years. He is a guy you can rely on.
“You see it – two training sessions, how he moves, how he talks, how he sees what happens to surround him, reading the situations. Really good.”
For now, City have narrowed the deficit to leaders Arsenal to four points and they will be relying on a favour from rivals Manchester United when they play at Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Former England captain Alan Shearer told BBC Sport: “It’s too early to say Manchester City are back. They were playing at home against the team bottom of the table.
“We know how reliant they’ve been on Erling Haaland this season so it was interesting to see Pep try something different today with Marmoush and Semenyo and there were some promising signs but much bigger tests lie ahead.”
