Gary Lineker believes Manchester City are missing a key star they let go recently after watching Pep Guardiola’s loss to Brighton & Hove Albion on Sunday.
It has been a tough start to the 2025/26 campaign for Man City after following up their opening day win over Wolves with back-to-back defeats to Tottenham and Brighton, which leaves the Citizens six points behind Liverpool already.
Gary Neville knew Brighton had a chance against Man City when he saw the backline Guardiola put out, as the Sky Sports pundit is not convinced by Matheus Nunes at right-back.
Speaking about Sunday’s match, Lineker thinks City’s problems lie elsewhere, with the pundit stating that the Premier League giants are missing a player they let go recently.
Gary Lineker during Leicester City v Manchester United: Emirates FA Cup Quarter Final.
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Manchester City miss a player like Riyad Mahrez
Riyad Mahrez is adored by Man City fans after his five-year spell at the Etihad Stadium, where he played a pivotal role in Guardiola’s side winning every trophy possible
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Mahrez knew exactly how Guardiola wanted his wingers to perform, and after watching Brighton beat City on Sunday, Lineker thinks the Algerian star is a player the Manchester club miss after they allowed him to move to Al-Ahli in 2023 as part of a £30m deal.
“Yeah, I think there might be two things. I said, one, the fear factor of playing City, I think would be negated to a degree by the fact that people can see that they’re now beatable,” Lineker said when speaking about Man City’s struggles on The Rest Is Football.
“I think the second thing, and probably more importantly, I think overall, they haven’t quite got the standard of player that they’ve had in most of Pep’s seasons. You know, there’s De Bruyne is no longer there; his powers were waning at the end.
“We saw that, you know, last season, there’s no, you know, Mahrez, you can name quite a few players really, that are not there now. Alvarez, another one, at Atlético, because ultimately, you can have coaches who are seriously important, but ultimately, it’s about the quality of the footballers that you have underneath you.”
Riyad Mahrez with the Premier League trophy.
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Rodri thinks Rayan Cherki is similar to Riyad Mahrez
It remains to be seen if any of the players in Guardiola’s current squad can have the same impact as Mahrez over the coming years, with Rodri tipping Rayan Cherki to be that guy.
The Algerian recently visited Man City’s player at their training ground, and during the 34-year-old’s trip, Rodri told his former teammate that Cherki was like him.
Savinho is another who could step up into the role Mahrez left, as the two players are very similar in the way they play, being left-footed right-wingers.
Man City have high hopes for Savinho after blocking his move to Tottenham this summer, and the Manchester club hope that faith is repaid over the coming months.