‘Ridiculous’ ‘Give The Lad A Chance!’ Fans React As Guardiola Leaves City Ace On The Bench Against Everton

Manchester City midfielder James McAtee was an unused substitute yet again for the 1-1 draw versus Everton on Boxing Day.

Manager Pep Guardiola has given the 22-year-old just two brief cameos in the Premier League this season despite the club’s struggles.

Considering the need for greater creativity, supporters on X have been left wondering what McAtee has to do for Guardiola to give him more minutes on the pitch:


McAtee won’t leave City in January

The England Under 21 international does have suitors, with the likes of West Ham, Crystal Palace and Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen having all been credited with an interest in the player in recent weeks.

However, when asked whether the Cityzens would be prepared to offload McAtee earlier this week, Guardiola said he doesn’t want to let him go.

It was another poor performance from City

Despite Erling Haaland missing a penalty, Guardiola’s men didn’t really deserve to win. They laboured for long stretches of the game.

For that reason, the manager’s continued refusal to play McAtee in midfield is baffling. Many fans believe he could offer a lot more than the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Mateo Kovacic are currently producing. It will be interesting to see whether he will get any minutes against Leicester on Sunday.

Find out who is in Manchester City’s first-team squad for the 2024/2025 season here

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David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World's Football News Network.