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Manchester City manager Enzo Maresca has admitted his squad will “probably” require further additions in the final five days of the transfer window.

The Blues have left their summer rebuild until late, with the club still waiting to replace several major departures from the current window.

Midfield is one area where Maresca’s side are especially short of numbers. That follows the exits of Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Tijjani Reijnders and Nico Gonzalez. The shortage of options led the Italian coach to use Marc Guehi in an unfamiliar position in their Premier League opener.

Teenager Ayyoub Bouaddi has arrived in the last few days, but City are still chasing at least one more midfield signing. It is expected that an offer for Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez will be made in the coming days.

“At the moment, I think we have 21 or 22 players,” Maresca said. “That can be the right number. But also in this moment, we have the three or four players from the academy that are involved in this number.

“So probably thinking that we are going to play 65 or 60 games, I don’t know exactly. Probably we need more numbers.”

City are also likely to add another forward before the window closes. Both Savio and Omar Marmoush joined Tottenham over the past week. A deal has reportedly been agreed with Palmeiras to bring winger Allan Elias to the Etihad.

Maresca continued: “I think probably the right idea is to have two players in each position, also because they need to compete between them.

“The standard is higher when they can compete for every game. So for me, the ideal situation is to have two players in each position.

“And then we have Ryan McAidoo with us, Samba with us, Kaden with us. So I think with three or four academy players with us is enough.”