10 | Jack Grealish - 2021/22 Performances

[DATOIA]

In this interview he says that, he didn't expect that it would be so difficult to play for City..

It's easy when you play for a small club, everything is built around you and etc. but when you move to the club full of superstars, then you are just another talented guy - who should play for the team and not the other way around. For this purpose Jack who was used to get the ball more often and have goalscoring opportunities - has found out that in big club everything is limited and those limited moments you should play at 10000%.. Otherwise you become a looser.

It was same scenario with Mahrez.. Compare his Leicester situation to City`s one, but Ryad has learned to perform those moments at 1000% and we have seen how efficient he has become. His every movement, every touch with the ball is so efficient that he rarely makes the mistakes.. But we remember how many problems he had during first two seasons..

Jack plays without mistakes.. Until team arrives to the final third, he never looses the ball and participates well in the team play, but then he lacks confidence and courage and maybe selfishness to act and make decisions. I think it will come match-by-match and as soon as he is fully integrated in the squad, knows everything there is to know about the teammates, Pep, club and etc.

Guardiola was speaking about that as well. His overall involvement in build-up and everything is great, but in the opponents box, he lacks that individual performances - what is needed to score the goals and make assists. Maybe he is afraid to loose the ball and that's why he tries not to risk, but that's not the problem for me.. Sooner or later he will start to risk, that's without any question or doubt..

 

[schfc6]

The issue is not necessarily his starting position, but rather where he actually spends his time on the pitch.

These are his heat maps for league matches for Villa over the past few years, taken from sofascore.

17/18 (Championship)

View attachment 31641

18/19 (Championship) :
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19/20 (Premier League) :
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20/21 (Premier League) :
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Now here he is this season so far:
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The biggest area of main activity is broadly similar, but if we look closely we can see what he's doing less of - dropping deep, drifting central, switching to the right.

This is as I thought, he’s only ever really played where he is for City.

As you say, at City he doesn’t go as deep, I’d say that likely because we spend far less time in our half than Villa do.

 

[Lauz9888]

The issue is not necessarily his starting position, but rather where he actually spends his time on the pitch.

These are his heat maps for league matches for Villa over the past few years, taken from sofascore.

17/18 (Championship)

View attachment 31641

18/19 (Championship) :
View attachment 31642

19/20 (Premier League) :
View attachment 31643

20/21 (Premier League) :
View attachment 31644

Now here he is this season so far:
View attachment 31645

The biggest area of main activity is broadly similar, but if we look closely we can see what he's doing less of - dropping deep, drifting central, switching to the right.

We're playing him kind of as if he's a left-sided Mahrez:


When maybe he's more like something along the lines of a left-sided Bernardo:

 

[Pablo ZZZ Peroni]

Touch maps for Grealish for City in 21/22 compared to Villa in 20/21. The red concentrations are where he has had the most touches. Note the concentrations for this season will expand as the season progresses - as it stands he is approaching 50% of the minutes he played last season for Villa.

Here's Sterling in 20/21 for comparison and uncannily similar to Grealish 20/21 .Big and important difference is Sterling gets more touches/shots in the central area between the goal posts (most optimal for scoring) and we've only really seen Jack there so far in the Watford game. My bet is we will see him there lots more in the months ahead and hopefully leads to an up tick in the goals he scores.





Edit: I was sorting these before seeing @Lauz9888 posts above..great minds and all that :)

 

[DATOIA]

We're playing him kind of as if he's a left-sided Mahrez:
View attachment 31649

When maybe he's more like something along the lines of a left-sided Bernardo:

View attachment 31650

For sure, Grealish is more of a LCM than LW

But as I understand, his defensive skills aren’t good

I was surprised when yesterday Pep chose not to play him in midfield when Foden came in and Phil had to continue as LCM

So until defensive skills are improved - False 9 role suits better to him and that’s where he will be playing in the best scenario (If everyone is healthy and have no injuries)

 

[WallyA]

I think right now Pep is just trying to get him minutes to learn the system.

Looking towards next season I think he will play LCM role, he and Bernie could be a perfect combo.

Gundogan is getting older, he and KdB over time will need to be rotation options. Their legs need to be managed.

 

[Lauz9888]

View attachment 31646View attachment 31647

Touch maps for Grealish for City in 21/22 compared to Villa in 20/21. The red concentrations are where he has had the most touches. Note the concentrations for this season will expand as the season progresses - as it stands he is approaching 50% of the minutes he played last season for Villa.

Here's Sterling in 20/21 for comparison and uncannily similar to Grealish 20/21 .Big and important difference is Sterling gets more touches/shots in the central area between the goal posts (most optimal for scoring) and we've only really seen Jack there so far in the Watford game. My bet is we will see him there lots more in the months ahead and hopefully leads to an up tick in the goals he scores.


View attachment 31651


Edit: I was sorting these before seeing @Lauz9888 posts above..great minds and all that :)

 

[Lauz9888]

This is as I thought, he’s only ever really played where he is for City.

As you say, at City he doesn’t go as deep, I’d say that likely because we spend far less time in our half than Villa do.

That 18/19 season was when they got promoted, so I'm going to assume they didn't spend the whole season pegged back in their own half. Of course Villa play more on the counter-attack than we do, but nonetheless even when they were on the front foot Grealish was often starting from a deep position and progressing the ball into the opponent's half through dribbling or passing, rather than being the person receiving the ball in those forward positions. In that role, his lack of pure straight-line speed from a standing start was less of an issue, because he had more space to use his changes of pace and direction combined with close control to get past people.

This article from last year makes an argument for playing him as a 6. I don't think I agree, but it's an interesting perspective and a solid summary of his strengths over the past few years.

Jack Grealish: Does England finally have a Midfield Maestro once again?

Contemplating the possibility of finding a World-Class Central Midfielder in Aston Villa’s Captain Jack Grealish!

onenil.medium.com

 

[Agueroooo9320]

View attachment 31646View attachment 31647

Touch maps for Grealish for City in 21/22 compared to Villa in 20/21. The red concentrations are where he has had the most touches. Note the concentrations for this season will expand as the season progresses - as it stands he is approaching 50% of the minutes he played last season for Villa.

Here's Sterling in 20/21 for comparison and uncannily similar to Grealish 20/21 .Big and important difference is Sterling gets more touches/shots in the central area between the goal posts (most optimal for scoring) and we've only really seen Jack there so far in the Watford game. My bet is we will see him there lots more in the months ahead and hopefully leads to an up tick in the goals he scores.


View attachment 31651


Edit: I was sorting these before seeing @Lauz9888 posts above..great minds and all that :)

this is brilliant graph. shows the clear difference in his role. his starting position where he receives or picks up the ball seems a similar position, but the difference is what he does at other times. while in villa it seems he has the freedom to move inside or go deep, but in our system he is completely constrained to stay in the zone where he receives the ball and bring others into the game. can now see why he looks so one paced. like what was said in the post before, playing the left forward in 4-2-3-1 at villa is completely different to playing as a traditional left forward in a 4-3-3. I don't know what the eact solution is for now, playing in the midfield requires him to improve his defensive game but at the same time playing in the forward line requires him to become decisive in the box. for both of this he needs to change and adapt his game. But i believe it is easier to learn the defensive side than the attacking side.

 

[applejuice]

The major difference is Grealish is usually placed as the highest up the pitch for City when he plays as a left winger - become others outlet. But at Villa or England, a striker like Kane or Watkins will be on the higher position and provide an outlet option for Grealish.

The only exception - is the Chelsea away game. KDB and Foden played very high and provided the outlet option on many cases. In that game, Grealish did not "hold the ball too long" or "disturb our rhythm" and the version of commentary I listened to actually praised him a lot of "becoming part of City flow" and "Pep done well to transform Grealish in such a short time".

Grealish also did reasonably well in the game when a more traditional 9 - Torres started - the first 4 PL game and 1st CL game.

Looking at the game our team in a whole did not execute well - Southampton and Crystal Palace. Although the reason for the result was not on Grealish but on the back 4 + Ferna for Southampton game - and Laporte for Crystal Palace. It is not surprising to find in both of the game, Grealish positioin was very high up the pitch comparing to the others.





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