By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Yonhap) -- New Manchester City head coach Enzo Maresca said Tuesday he would like to see his Premier League club get "better and better" during their two-match trip to Seoul this week.

Maresca and his English club will play two preseason matches in the South Korean capital. First, they will take on Team K League at 8 p.m. Wednesday at Seoul World Cup Stadium. They will then face the Spanish club Atletico Madrid at 8 p.m. Sunday, also at the Seoul venue. These matches make up the fifth annual Coupang Play Series, run by the namesake streaming service.

Man City began their Asian tour with a 3-1 loss to Inter Milan on penalties Saturday in Hong Kong. Maresca, who took over from Pep Guardiola in June, held his prematch press conference at a Seoul hotel just hours after landing in South Korea.

The Italian tactician said there were "many things that we can do better" from the Inter Milan match, but Maresca was also pleased to see his players execute things that they had been working on since the start of their preseason training.

"Both games in this moment, they are very important for us no matter the opponents," Maresca said of the two games in Seoul. "The reason is just because we need, game after game, to see how the team is getting better and better. So this is the main focus in this moment. For sure, we are going to try to win games. That is the main thing, but in the same moment, we need to see how the team is improving day after day."

Maresca also shrugged off concerns about the stifling conditions in Seoul, which was placed under the highest-level heat wave warning Tuesday and will likely remain so on the day of the match.

"We try to train in a normal way, knowing that the temperature is the temperature. It is something that also we need to adapt (to) in this moment," he said. "It is not something that I am worried (about) because we need to train, we need to play games. So the most important thing that we can do in this case is just to try to adapt to the weather and take every game in the right way and try to improve game after game."

For Man City, players that reached the quarterfinals and beyond at this year's FIFA World Cup did not travel to South Korea due to the mandatory, three-week rest time ahead of the new Premier League season kicking off Aug. 21.

Rodri, captain of the champion Spain who also earned the Golden Ball as the tournament's best player, and Erling Haaland, the Norwegian talisman who led his national team to the quarterfinals, are the two notable absences.

But Maresca will still have plenty of talent on his hand, including Phil Foden, the 2024 winner of the Professional Footballers' Association Men's Players' Player of the Year award.

Foden, who had only played for Guardiola in his club career before Maresca came aboard, said he is enjoying "a fresh start" with the new staff so far.

"I am enjoying the new coaching and stuff, the way we are playing and the things we do with them in training," the English player said. "I am just really excited for the season, and hopefully, we can have a really good year."

Though Foden is still just 26, he has been with Man City since 2017, making him one of the veterans on the club. He said he will embrace more of a leadership role going forward -- something that he thinks Maresca wants him to do, anyway.

"I think what he wants from me is to try and be an example to the young lads at the moment on tour," Foden said. "I have been at the club for so long. I think I will have to be one of the leaders this season. I am looking forward to that new responsibility and trying to take leadership."

This is Manchester City's first visit to South Korea since the 2023 Coupang Play Series. They have won 10 Premier League titles, four of them since 2020. They also accomplished a domestic double this past season by winning the FA Cup and the League Cup.

jeeho@yna.co.kr

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