“Most useless player”, “So painful to watch” – Manchester City fans slam Pep Guardiola’s decision to name 27-year-old star in line-up against Leicester

Some Manchester City fans are not pleased to see Jack Grealish in the Cityzens' starting line-up to face Leicester City today (October 29).

Manchester City will lock horns with Leicester at the King Power Stadium in their 12th Premier League match of the season today. They bounced back from their loss to Liverpool with a win against Brighton & Hove Albion and will now look to build on that against the Foxes.

With less than an hour to go until kick-off, the Cityzens have announced their starting XI for the match. Pep Guardiola has made three changes to the team that beat Brighton 3-1 last weekend.

It is worth noting that Manchester City faced Borussia Dortmund in the UEFA Champions League in midweek. While they have already booked their place in the Round of 16 of the competition, Erling Haaland suffered an injury during the game.

This season's Premier League top scorer Haaland has thus been ruled out of the match due to an injury. Julian Alvarez has notably taken the Norway international's place in the starting line-up.

Club captain Ilkay Gundogan has come in for Riyad Mahrez, with Bernardo Silva playing further forward. John Stones appears to be starting at right-back for the visitors, with Ruben Dias dropping to the bench.

Among the eight players to start against Brighton and retain their place at the King Power is Grealish. The Englishman has made six league appearances for Manchester City so far this term, scoring just one goal in the process.

Grealish's performances have often left the City faithful frustrated this season. A section of supporters have thus taken to Twitter to slam Guardiola for giving the 27-year-old another chance in the line-up.

Here are the best selection of tweets on the matter:

🔵 TEAM NEWS 🔵

XI | Ederson, Stones, Akanji, Laporte, Cancelo, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Gundogan (C), Bernardo, Alvarez, Grealish

SUBS | Ortega Moreno, Carson, Dias, Ake, Gomez, Mahrez, Foden, Lewis, Wilson-Esbrand

#ManCity | @HaysWorldwide https://t.co/gYJUIL7Y9V

@ManCity @HaysWorldwide Grealish again. Most useless player

@ManCity @HaysWorldwide Somehow Pep thinka Grealish is better than Foden

One fan wrote:

"Pep [Guardiola is] trying his best to keep the title race interesting by continuing to play Grealish over Foden. #Fraud."

Pep trying his best to keep the title race interesting by continuing to play Grealish over Foden 🤡 #fraud

@Brianworldwide2 I don’t like this Grealish guy Foden is better than him!

Another frustrated Manchester City supporter wrote:

"And we have to watch Grealish play, this so painful to watch."

@SxrgioSZN @ManCity @HaysWorldwide And we have to watch Grealish play this so painful to watch

No Haaland, Grealish starting. We’re not winning today

I dare you to drop another stinker again @JackGrealish twitter.com/mancity/status…

It now remains to be seen if Grealish can prove his doubters wrong by firing the Cityzens to a win against Leicester today. A victory over Brendan Rodgers' side would see them go atop the table, although current leaders Arsenal are scheduled to face Nottingham Forest on Sunday (October 30).

How have Manchester City's opponents Leicester fared?

Leicester have had a poor 2022-23 season so far, and currently sit 17th in the league table. They have only 11 points to their name from 12 games and are just two points above bottom-placed Nottingham Forest.

However, the Foxes have won three and drawn one of their last five matches. They notably conceded just two goals in those games.