Pep Guardiola has offered an apology to Jack Grealish, acknowledging the lack of sufficient playing time which has put the £100million attacker's England future at risk. With Grealish notably absent from Thomas Tuchel's first squad for the national team, Guardiola expressed his regret, saying: "I feel so sorry for all of the players who don't play.
"What can I say? Kova [Mateo Kovacic], Nico O'Reilly) and James McAtee. I know that. When we have games every three days, it's easy for the rotation, but now I have to decide every game for the quality they have. Jeremy Doku was outstanding, the way he got the ball to the byline so many times. Savinho missed chances, but he was really good." He also mentioned Savinho's missed opportunities but recognised his overall positive contribution.
Guardiola added: "All the managers around the world have to make the right decision. When they select 11, they have to believe they're going to win.
"I never found a manager who selects a team thinking it's going to lose. So I try and, if we win, I'm right and if we don't, it could be better.
"I try to be honest. I needed speed up front, I needed stability in the middle, with Gundo's [Ilkay Gundogan] intelligence and the physicality from Nico, because I saw many times, with Brighton's physicality, how good they are."
This story originally appeared on the Mirror