Pep Guardiola has warned Jack Grealish and Phil Foden about their conduct after they were axed for Manchester City’s 4-0 win over Newcastle United on Sunday.
Both players were left on the bench at St James’ Park, despite impressing in the 7-0 victory over Leeds United earlier in the week.
According to The Telegraph, Grealish and Foden visited a nightclub after the win over Leeds and City staff were ‘unhappy’ with the condition of the two players in their recovery session the following day.
The report claims that Guardiola ‘was left distinctly unimpressed’ by the episode and took the decision to drop Grealish and Foden for the trip to Newcastle.
‘It was not rotation, no,’ Guardiola said about City’s starting XI for their win over Newcastle.
‘I decided on this team because they deserved to play today, these guys and not the other ones.
‘At Christmas time I pay a lot of attention to behaviour on and off the pitch. And when off the pitch is not proper, they are not going to play.
‘So we have to be focussed all the time because of distractions at Christmas time and everything that happens, you have to still be focussed.
‘If the players believe I rotated for that game they are mistaken.
‘I decide the best team today for the way they play. We needed a different pace for the players and that’s why they play.
‘I don’t know if we are going to play Leicester [on Boxing Day], unfortunately they have a lot of [Covid] cases, hopefully they are getting better. It depends what we see in the training sessions and it depends what we see on and off the pitch, how the players behave in this period, and I will take a decision.’
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