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Manchester City have vented their frustrations over Pep Guardiola's decision to start Riyad Mahrez and Jack Grealish for their clash with FC Copenhagen on Tuesday, October 11.
The Cityzens have a perfect record in the Champions League, having beaten tonight's opponents 5-0 at the Etihad Stadium last week. Guardiola has clearly decided that this is a good opportunity to rest some of his star players, with Erling Haaland on the bench.
The legendary manager has made five changes in total for the encounter in the Danish capital, with Grealish and Mahrez coming in for Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden. Despite Grealish's recent upturn in form, the pair need to be more productive when it comes to scoring goals and creating chances.
Grealish, who cost Manchester City £100 million last summer, has scored just once and is yet to register an assist in his nine appearances so far this season. Meanwhile, Mahrez has netted just twice in his 12 games so far, although many of those appearances have come from the substitutes bench.
With many of Manchester City's star players rested for the game, this is a great opportunity for the wingers to show Guardiola what they can do for the team. But supporters were skeptical of their inclusion in the team, as they took to Twitter to express their disappointment.
Here is a selection of tweets:
Pep Guardiola admits Manchester City's defense 'cannot handle' consistent starts amidst current injury crisis
Ahead of the clash in Copenhagen, Guardiola revealed his concerns over the fitness of his defenders. Kyle Walker has a long-term groin problem and John Stones is out with a hamstring injury, but the Spanish boss is also concerned by his other defenders' aches and pains.
Manchester City haven't fielded the same back four in their previous seven encounters and Guardiola says his squad need to share the load if they want success this term. He told a press conference (as per The Daily Mail):
"I would love to have the same back four but they cannot handle it. The players we have cannot handle every three days of being fit. Other teams might be able to, but we can’t.
"John (Stones) can’t, Nathan (Ake) can’t, Ruben (Dias) last season, Aymeric (Laporte) came back from a big injury so it’s important for us that everyone can play and everyone can perform well."
He continued:
"If you want to be in there with all the titles we are fighting for and with the World Cup and be in that position to fight until the end and we need to be ready to fight until the end, otherwise it will be so difficult."
