The message from the dressing room

Enzo Maresca has been doing his best to steel Manchester City's players ahead of their trip to Anfield, delivering a rallying cry that cuts straight to the point. According to reports, the Italian has been telling his squad: "Forget the noise, we're here to win a league. Let's go and win the league." It is the kind of simple, blunt motivational mantra that managers reach for when external circumstances threaten to swallow a football match whole.

And the circumstances here are anything but ordinary. City arrive on Merseyside having been found guilty of 114 of 115 Premier League charges, an extraordinary verdict that has cast a long shadow over the Etihad club's recent history. They have appealed, and the possible sanctions remain severe: points deductions, expulsion from the top flight, or the stripping of titles. Some of those titles, in theory, could eventually find their way to Liverpool, given how often the Reds were pipped to honours during that period.

Defiant in public, focused in private

Maresca was just as composed at his pre-match press conference, sticking firmly to the line that only what happens on the pitch is within his control. "For me and the players, we can control just the pitch, the football side," he said. "We are focused on that. This what we can control. We cannot control something different. Viewing the environment in the last two days, I am not worried at all. The environment of the players is nice."

He also backed his club to overturn the verdict on appeal. "I trust the club because I know the people but I promise you my focus is just about football," he said. "I am not thinking about different things, first of all because I don't understand much about different things. I just focus on the things I can control and that is the football side." Whether the Anfield crowd grants him that kind of narrow focus is another matter entirely.

Reports suggest Maresca's motivational style is anything but low-key behind closed doors. He reportedly stalks the dressing room as he speaks, repeating his mantras with increasing volume until his players are, in the words of those who have witnessed it, ready to go to war for him. City sit top of the league, and Maresca leaned on that fact: "In this moment we are top of the league, so the players have all the reasons to be happy and excited. It will be a tough game for sure, a tough test, but we need to be ready."

The returning shadow of Guardiola

Hovering over all of this is the figure of Pep Guardiola, the man whose decade in charge has been fundamentally called into question by the charges verdict. The former City boss has publicly pledged his support, backing "my club" and insisting "we will get through this together." Maresca confirmed he has been in contact with his predecessor and welcomed his imminent return to the Etihad for the Champions League fixture against Paris St Germain.

"I spoke with Pep the last time after the Man Utd game. I know he is coming on Wednesday," Maresca said. "After 10 years here he can come any time he wants, not just for a game but for a training session, at any moment. It will be nice for him and the fans, for everyone." For Liverpool supporters, the Guardiola era is precisely the period under scrutiny, and that is not a detail the Kop will be forgetting any time soon when City run out at Anfield.