Grealish left out of the CWC squad (pg34)

[Lavinda Past]

it’s a personal thing but I like my ‘colourful characters’ to be ‘colourful’on the pitch not in the papers.

Aguero, KDB etc kept a low profile off the pitch but certainly entertained on it.

Where as Jack and his fear of shooting have provided limited entertainment on the pitch but I’m sure he would be good company on a night out.

I think as a club we prioritise the former. It’s a professional sport nowadays, and to stay at the top you have to behave accordingly.

I agree with much of what you say, but it's been a professional sport for over 100 years. It's the 'elite' element of the game that has led to dull robotic players and risk averse, possession based football.

Boring players, boring tactics, producing defensively negative boring matches.

I'd rather watch players who want to fully express themselves, like Jack, David Silva, Sane, Tevez, Sergio, Negredo, and Mario etc, playing for a coach who doesn't look like he's on the edge of a breakdown every time someone makes a mistake.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

I agree with much of what you say, but it's been a professional sport for over 100 years. It's the 'elite' element of the game that has led to dull robotic players and risk averse, possession based football.

Boring players, boring tactics, producing defensively negative boring matches.

I'd rather watch players who want to fully express themselves, like Jack, David Silva, Sane, Tevez, Sergio, Negredo, and Mario etc, playing for a coach who doesn't look like he's on the edge of a breakdown every time someone makes a mistake.

That coach guided us to an unprecedented four titles in a row with a treble slammed in the middle of doing that. What a sour, moaning fucker you are.

 

[roach3]

It read all the thread but it seems like Jack has decided he’s on his way and thought fuck it I’m not getting back in this team
May aswell enjoy last few weeks of the season. There’s no way Jack would start getting on the piss if he thought he’d be getting anymore game time with what’s left of the season.
Love the guy buts somethings happened that pep just won’t stand for and it’s obvious he’s on his way out.

 

[Lavinda Past]

That coach guided us to an unprecedented four titles in a row with a treble slammed in the middle of doing that. What a sour, moaning fucker you are.

Pep's risk averse football is boring to watch.

Hugely successful without a doubt, but over the years it's become predictably dull, robotic, and lacking genuine flair.

Just my opinion of course, but PL coaches copying (trying) Pep's possession based style of football has resulted in the PL being less exciting.

 

[CTIDANDREW]

There are no secrets in the football industry and every club will be more aware of truth than we the general public they wouldn't be acting on rumors and the click-bait media like "we" are
So, nothing Pep does or says makes a blind difference to his value, the biggest factors are we want rid and he's on high wages

It’s just hard for me to agree with that.
This impending Jack transfer will be an interesting test case to that theory.

It’s not worth an argument, since this isn’t the right thread for it, but Pep calling out Kalvin for his professionalism and saying he was out of shape no doubt hurt his confidence at the least and based on how last summer went, certainly negatively affected his transfer value.

 

[Norbert D]

The only destination willing to pay Jack’s £300k per week wage is Saudi. He’s got two years left on his contract and unless he’s willing to take a pay cut I guess he will see out his contract, maybe a loan with City footing some of the bill. A shit state of affairs that smacks of poor club management.

 

[CTIDANDREW]

Jesus Christ, have a day off

Appreciate the response, and I agree I’m likely being too frustrated over the situation,
FFP just makes things difference nowadays, and if Jack isn’t able to be moved this summer and he isn’t in the plans for next years squad…then that is a big negative, that seemed avoidable.

I’ll put my trust in the management team.
I just wish things didn’t go the way they did, but that is life.

 

[jimharri]

Pep's risk averse football is boring to watch.

Hugely successful without a doubt, but over the years it's become predictably dull, robotic, and lacking genuine flair.

Just my opinion of course, but PL coaches copying (trying) Pep's possession based style of football has resulted in the PL being less exciting.

Since the treble, we have undoubtedly become more of a functional team (okay, maybe not as functional this season). We're not as entertaining to watch as in the 2018-21 era. There are times when, even as a City fan, it's a grind to watch us. On the whole it's worked this last 4 years. But not this season. Time for a reboot of the team.

 

[Norbert D]

Pep's risk averse football is boring to watch.

Hugely successful without a doubt, but over the years it's become predictably dull, robotic, and lacking genuine flair.

Just my opinion of course, but PL coaches copying (trying) Pep's possession based style of football has resulted in the PL being less exciting.

Very rough figures but in the FA Cup final city played 600 pass of which 450 were backwards, Palace played roughly 200 pass of which 100 were forwards.

 

[Kippax Street 1880]

Sad it's reached this point but honestly if the worst happens today and we're desperate for a goal in the last 10 mins to save us you would want Bobb or Echeverri coming off the bench not Jack wouldn't you?

 

[Craig]

Yes

Doku is more aggressive when attacking the box, creates more against packed defences, can beat a man and when he actually gets in front of goal he is a better finisher -
Marmoush can actually play from that left side as well.
Oreilly going down the left from fullback is more an effective attacker than Grealish - and Gvardiol is better down that side as well

Id actually love to see Sav operate from that side but Doku is less affective on the right

It may hurt some people but Grealish isnt as good as the hype ever suggested....he was never a great attacking threat even for Villa when he supposedly had more freedom - it was a weird transfer to do and one I believe the club are now wary of repeating in the future. Grealish came with celebrity status and lifestyle which brings in shirt sales, sponsorships etc etc so great in that aspect....unfortunately that didnt translate to consistent effective performances on the pitch which has to be the main focus.
When Beckham got too big - the old piss can got rid of him - his celebrity status got in the way

Yeah, i wasn’t on about Doku. I’d much rather see him wide on the left. You’ll never get the best out of Grealish hugging the left touch line. I meant more with state of our midfield for most of the season. Foden and KDB falling off cliffs and even McAtee starting games ahead of Grealish.

 

[Eccles Blue]

Sad it's reached this point but honestly if the worst happens today and we're desperate for a goal in the last 10 mins to save us you would want Bobb or Echeverri coming off the bench not Jack wouldn't you?

No I’d want Jack!

 

[pbueno16]

I did at the time wonder how Pep would react to Jack's over the top celebration of the treble.
Pep doesn't seem to mind a day or two of the lads letting their down, but over two months !.
Always has a feeling Pep wouldn't be happy with how Jack spent that time off.

Didn’t seem to mind the team’s celebrations last season enough to throw an FA Cup away to a dogshit team.

 

[IrishBloodEnglishHeart]

There's videos of Pep when he was younger "letting his hair down" with birds around him doing his dad dancing. He's not a robot

 

[pbueno16]

Sadly that picture will be what his remembered for, I struggle to think of any iconic moments on the pitch, as said earlier, a great talent but I think he will look back with great regret later in his life. This season he should have become our main man, he sadly is a million miles from that.

Tracking back against Liverpool to keep Salah from having a 1 on 1 with Ederson, running Carvajal absolutely ragged two seasons in a row, creating two goals against Orient…

 

[Keeper!]

Correct. Didn't we sign Keith MacRae because of Joe's ropey early form? When he didn't turn out as we'd hoped, Joe got a second chance (around '74, was it?) and he never looked back.

100% correct, the way Corrigan came back was incredible, if it was not for Shilton/Clemance the Big man would have got a 100 caps for England.

 

[BlueMoonRisin’]

Tracking back against Liverpool to keep Salah from having a 1 on 1 with Ederson, running Carvajal absolutely ragged two seasons in a row, creating two goals against Orient…

Not many stand out moments in 4 seasons.

Creating two goals against Orient!? Lol.

 

[Hgblue2]

Grealish will move on in the Summer and we'll all be watching him perform really well elsewhere next season. All so predictable.

 

[Manchester_lalala]

Pep's risk averse football is boring to watch.

Hugely successful without a doubt, but over the years it's become predictably dull, robotic, and lacking genuine flair.

Just my opinion of course, but PL coaches copying (trying) Pep's possession based style of football has resulted in the PL being less exciting.

It’s all coming out the closet now we’ve had a poor year, isn’t it? I said last week this season and a part of last season hasn’t been particularly great to watch, but the way you worded that post came across as ungrateful to the man that has given us everything we’ve seen for the past 10 years. If Pep never changed his free flowing football like we saw until 2020, we may never have seen the treble or four in a row. He’s a tactical genius and that’s proven by the records he’s smashed.

 

[pbueno16]

Agreed. He’s not a player who dribbles past his marker and instead is one with brilliant vision and execution of a pass. But to be able to show those abilities, he needs runners around him and we’ve not really had that from midfield for a couple of seasons.

I remember the Madrid home game in 2023 where he took the piss out of Carvajal all night and he did the same thing - stand him up, cut inside and play a well-timed sideways(!) pass to an oncoming runner (usually Gundo) and it worked a treat every time. I’m sure the second goal came from it as well.

It sounds like such a simple action - but none of the other wingers have done it/do it apart from Mahrez. Same way they both ‘pass’ a cross rather than just aimlessly put it into an area. I bet Haaland loved playing with him. But admittedly it’s not enough to keep him based on that.

Annoyingly, I bet he’d work a treat with Reijnders because his movement is fantastic from midfield which would cater to Grealish’s strengths.

Thank you. Unless we get natural full backs and runners through the middle, all our wide players will end up unproductive.