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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has urged Jack Grealish to build on his performance in the FA Cup fourth round win over Leyton Orient and show him “how wrong” leaving him out of the team is.
Grealish has totalled just 599 minutes of Premier League football this season, being entrusted with a start by Guardiola just six times. He has played a further 16 times across all competitions but has fallen down the pecking order behind Savinho and Jeremy Doku.
City also signed Omar Marmoush from Eintracht Frankfurt in January, in a deal worth £63m, and the Egyptian is capable of playing anywhere across the frontline – ticking the versatility box that Guardiola seemingly looks for in all players that aren’t Erling Haaland.
Grealish provided the assist for Kevin De Bruyne’s late winner in City’s latest comeback win on Saturday, which saw him a start a game for the first time since the 8-0 destruction of League Two Salford City early in January.
He is likely to be on the bench again for City’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid, and Guardiola has again challenged Grealish to prove he deserves a more important role.
“Jack has this sense of the street,” Guardiola said. “He is a player of the street. Today most of the players, for a manager, are academic – ‘you have to do this or that’. Jack is a fighter. He is there to fight in the stadiums when the people shout.
“He didn’t play the last games, mainly because Savinho on the left side had an incredible connection with Erling [Haaland] but the season is still open.
“But against Orient I saw the glimpse that he is going to rebel, to show the manager how wrong he is. I love that.”
Expanding further on the need for strong competition for places, Guardiola continued: “Players have to understand it is not new contracts that makes them better, it is the competition in the locker room and on the pitch.
“They have to feel they have to fight with Savinho and with [Jeremy] Doku. Phil [Foden] can play there as well. That is the point. In the end, it is about performance and delivering assists and goals.”