Ian Ladyman has questioned whether Jack Grealish has lost some of his natural flair as a result of working under Pep Guardiola.
The 28-year-old winger joined Man City from Aston Villa for £100million in 2021 and after a difficult debut season, he played a crucial role as Guardiola's side won the Treble in 2022-23.
However, bar an impressive performance during City's 3-0 win over Man United last month, Grealish has struggled to replicate that form, adding just two assists and no goals in 13 appearances in all competitions.
Grealish - who failed to impact England's disappointing 1-1 draw with North Macedonia this week - has also faced the challenge of competing with summer signing Jeremy Doku for a position on the left wing.
And Mail Sport football editor Ladyman discussed the issue of his form with former Premier League winner Chris Sutton on Mail Sport's It's All Kicking Off podcast and suggested a reason for his recent struggles.
'Sideways, backwards, he's lost a little bit of a zip has Jack,' he said. 'And we need him to get it back so we can see the Grealish that we love, don't we?
'I've still got all the faith in the world about him, but what really interests me about that situation is that I think it is a Pep Guardiola thing.
'I think he's playing to instruction. I think he's playing to keep the ball, he's playing to win fouls.
'And I find it as a football fan, as a football observer, as a journalist for 20 odd years, I find it interesting. I find it fascinating. That's all.'
Sutton then accused Ladyman of blaming Guardiola for Grealish's disappointing displays.
Ladyman denied this and added: 'I'm really not. What I'm trying to say is, Pep likes to micromanage players. He literally walks onto a training ground and moves them into position.
'And I think this is a lot to do with the Grealish conundrum at the moment. I think he's been asked to play a certain way and I think that has taken some of that natural instinctive flair out of his mentality for the time being.
'I think it's a problem that will be corrected. City won't even see it as a problem because they are winning matches and I've got no idea whether Jack Grealish sees it as a problem.
'He'll probably want to get his goals and assist numbers up. He's a natural attacking wide player whose natural instinct has always been to take players on, get to byline, cross the ball, make things happen and he's playing in a different way.
'I find it interesting, simple as that. Don't try and make it sound as though I'm trying to drive some kind of wedge between Grealish and Pep. I'm not.'