Antoine Semenyo surprised by Man City plan to use him as Erling Haaland back-up

FootballSports
21 Sep 2026 • 7:02 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

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Antoine Semenyo surprised by Man City plan to use him as Erling Haaland back-up

Antoine Semenyo has said he is happy to be Manchester City’s Plan B as a centre-forward this season – even though he suggested they are yet to tell him about it.

After Omar Marmoush joined Tottenham, City are aiming to use the Ghanaian as a striker when Erling Haaland is not on the pitch.

The versatile Semenyo has operated as both a left winger and a right winger since arriving from Bournemouth and showed his finishing ability by scoring his first goals of the season with a brace in Sunday’s 5-3 win over Sunderland.

And he said: “I've heard about his back-up striker thing. I don't know where it's come from, but if I need to, then I'll do it. I've no problem in doing that.”

With Semenyo and Haaland rested, teenager Floyd Samba played as the centre-forward in Thursday’s 5-0 victory over Norwich in the Carabao Cup.

Semenyo believes new manager Enzo Maresca’s style of football suits wingers like him as he savoured the start to a new era.

“I've enjoyed it,” he added. “I think for wide players, we're high and wide, and we get a lot of one-v-one situations, and he backs us to win our duels, even if you lose them, just keep going. But collectively, it's quite similar to last year and we just need to keep improving.”

City have made a 100 per cent start to the Premier League season and have won their last seven games in all competitions.

And Semenyo said: “Everyone feels good. It’s where we want to be. We're not going to get too complacent, too relaxed. We know that there's a lot more games to go. And we just want to continue winning.”

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