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Pep Guardiola said that leaving Riyad Mahrez out of his Manchester City team had made him "sad".
The club's record purchase is underway for its first start since three weeks as the Blues enter Newport County in the fifth round of the FA Cup tomorrow.
Mahrez has been on the bench for four games, but has a rare opportunity to show what he can do at Rodney Parade.
His army of fans is puzzled by Guardiola's reluctance to make him one of the stars of Leicester's stunning 2016 Premier League win – he has only made ten league appearances this season.
But Guardiola says that Mahrez has done absolutely nothing wrong: he is simply an unfortunate victim of the burning form produced by Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva.
Leroy Sane had the same problem, but Guardiola had a hard time baderting that Mahrez could not have done anything to affect this omission, if it was to wait and wait when the time came.
When asked if there was a reason for his continued marginalization, Guardiola replied:
"I have a reason. I am the reason He is not absolutely guilty or he does not feel any particular reason for that.
"I'm sad because he's coaching incredibly – he's an incredibly talented player, but we currently have five forwards – for example in the last few games, Leroy has not played."
"We have incredible players, like Bernardo and Raz, for example, in top, top and that's the only reason.
"There is no particular reason, like being upset or something like that.
"He's a guy who satisfies us, but unfortunately, I'm not nice to him, I can not give him the minutes he deserves, so I'm sorry, that's all I can say."
When it was suggested that he had found his way into the City team a lot harder, because that's an obvious advance compared to Leicester, despite his heroic feats in 2016, Guardiola did not it was not.
"No. I am unfair to say that if he had played the minutes that the others had played, he would have been at the highest level like the players who play," he said.
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"It's not easy for a guy who does not play regularly to come in and play at a high level.
"He's level, but if we give him five or six straight games, he'll play Sterling or Bernardo or players who play.
"Because in two months, when we played four or five games in a row, he was incredible, exceptional.
"I have no doubt about his quality, just to continue, not to complain too much, to go forward and fight more and more, his time is coming.
"He's coming in and I'm sure he'll play well."
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