10 | Jack Grealish - 2021/22 Performances

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He's not the same player we saw at Villa....the maverick,game changing,free spirit,who gathered fouls for fun.
Pep has altered his game and his role,he has demanded a discipline and a safety first approach,which is in keeping with our slow build up/possession based style.
Jack is clearly still learning how to adapt and what is expected of him......it will take a bit of getting used to and,in the short time,he may continue to look a tad lost and uncomfortable.

Personally,i'm not sure why we bought him if the intention was to put the brakes on and remove his magic......there are plenty of other midfielders who could have performed that role for a fraction of the cost.
 
DATOIA said:
OK, but if you see Ederson playing as a LW - you first of all ask why is he playing there and not criticize - for not being as good LW as good GK he is..

Context is more important than just the end result and people are concentrating on the result only, which is irrelevant if we don't consider the context first of all.

And context is that, Jack isn't playing the position he is good at..
False 9 ? Has he ever played there in Villa ?

LW ? he played deeper than that and creating chances for the attackers..

So when you have all the above mentioned information and still cry about "Jack being not that great against Brentford" - means that you just don't want to analyze the game better and be logical about it.
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But Grealish has only ever played where he is now playing for City. Someone in fact two people went to the trouble of posting his heat maps of his seasons at Villa and City to date. They were almost identical. He sometimes went slightly deeper at Villa but that’s about it. He’s a forward left, always has been and he’s playing a variety of that.
 
schfc6 said:
But Grealish has only ever played where he is now playing for City. Someone in fact two people went to the trouble of posting his heat maps of his seasons at Villa and City to date. They were almost identical. He sometimes went slightly deeper at Villa but that’s about it. He’s a forward left, always has been and he’s playing a variety of that.
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We have similar case with Bernardo - he used to play as a RW in Monaco - but at City he started to shine as a RCM..

During Pellegrini / Mancini periods, both David Silva and Kev played as a wingers or number 10, never had to play deeper, they had Toure / Barry / Fernandinho / Fernando for that job, it was a different system and different philosophy. Even Milner couldn't get the minutes as a midfielder if you remember, only under Klopp he started to play deeper more frequently.

But under Pep both David Silva and Debruyne started to play as "eights" and deeper.

Same applies to Jack, he isn't a player who can show his full potential as a winger in Pep`s system, but as a midfielder he will be one our best players for sure..

In an ideal world, after 2-3 years or even sooner :) - we have Rodri as a DM, Bernardo as RCM and Jack as a LCM. This can be modern "Busquets-Xavi-Iniesta" type of midfield (but in a new way, not exact copy-paste of Barcelona) and I'm looking forward to that with great expectations.

So, judging Grealish while he is playing anything except LCM is like judging Bernardo when he isn't playing his favorite RCM position. Yesterday if someone watched Bernardo for the first time, "That Idiot" would have thought that this player can be easily offloaded, but is that true or real ? Nope, Bernardo is the last one you can think about to sell and that's not my opinion, that's how Pep rated him 2-3 weeks ago.
 
FantasyIreland said:
He's not the same player we saw at Villa....the maverick,game changing,free spirit,who gathered fouls for fun.
Pep has altered his game and his role,he has demanded a discipline and a safety first approach,which is in keeping with our slow build up/possession based style.
Jack is clearly still learning how to adapt and what is expected of him......it will take a bit of getting used to and,in the short time,he may continue to look a tad lost and uncomfortable.

Personally,i'm not sure why we bought him if the intention was to put the brakes on and remove his magic......there are plenty of other midfielders who could have performed that role for a fraction of the cost.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with this. The reason I thought we bought Grealish: his directness, energetic drives and dribbles into the box, seems to have been neutralised by the tactical requirements Pep’s put on him/the team.

What we need to hope for is that he learns his new responsibilities and tactical demands AND still manages to weave into his game all the things that made him great at villa.

The way he would draw one, two, three players towards him with his runs creates so much space for his teammates and that, I thought, was the main reason we bought him. However he often fails to beat his man, his shooting is off, and he simply isn’t creating that space for players around him. You look at Bernardo or Mahrez’s play on the opposite wing and how they create space for the likes of Cancelo or KDB who drifts wide… Grealish just isn’t doing this. Is that because technically he isn’t of their level? Speed and directness bring the best out of his game and I guess at villa they would often counter and he’d have the space to run into. At city most of the teams we face play much deeper with 10 men behind the ball. It requires a different style to open up those teams and I do worry Grealish doesn’t have that in his locker. Coupled with his off field antics I do question why we bought him.

However, pep’s not usually wrong and maybe in time we will see a better more rounded player emerge.
 
Saddleworth2 said:
But that is exactly how he played for Villa.
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We are not fucking Villa, third-tier shitty team from Championship - that’s the issue :D

This is City, best team with the best manager, playing with the most innovative philosophy of football
 
DATOIA said:
We have similar case with Bernardo - he used to play as a RW in Monaco - but at City he started to shine as a RCM..

During Pellegrini / Mancini periods, both David Silva and Kev played as a wingers or number 10, never had to play deeper, they had Toure / Barry / Fernandinho / Fernando for that job, it was a different system and different philosophy. Even Milner couldn't get the minutes as a midfielder if you remember, only under Klopp he started to play deeper more frequently.

But under Pep both David Silva and Debruyne started to play as "eights" and deeper.

Same applies to Jack, he isn't a player who can show his full potential as a winger in Pep`s system, but as a midfielder he will be one our best players for sure..

In an ideal world, after 2-3 years or even sooner :) - we have Rodri as a DM, Bernardo as RCM and Jack as a LCM. This can be modern "Busquets-Xavi-Iniesta" type of midfield (but in a new way, not exact copy-paste of Barcelona) and I'm looking forward to that with great expectations.

So, judging Grealish while he is playing anything except LCM is like judging Bernardo when he isn't playing his favorite RCM position. Yesterday if someone watched Bernardo for the first time, "That Idiot" would have thought that this player can be easily offloaded, but is that true or real ? Nope, Bernardo is the last one you can think about to sell and that's not my opinion, that's how Pep rated him 2-3 weeks ago.
Click to expand...

Bernardo is one of the most technically gifted midfielders in the world. I can completely see him playing the iniesta role, who was the master at the drop of the shoulder, short dribble and pass. Bernardo can beat a man, retain possession and pick a pass. I just don’t see Grealish with that vision, patience or deft pass required to play such a deeper role. To use your xavi/iniesta analogy if Bernardo is playing Iniesta then you need someone like Gundogan or KDB to play the xavi role. Grealish (for me) isn’t capable of that. Personally I see Foden much better suited to dropping deeper and being the talisman in the centre of the park.

Foden Rodri Bernardo… that’s the future central midfield for me.
 
bugsyblue said:
Bernardo is one of the most technically gifted midfielders in the world. I can completely see him playing the iniesta role, who was the master at the drop of the shoulder, short dribble and pass. Bernardo can beat a man, retain possession and pick a pass. I just don’t see Grealish with that vision, patience or deft pass required to play such a deeper role. To use your xavi/iniesta analogy if Bernardo is playing Iniesta then you need someone like Gundogan or KDB to play the xavi role. Grealish (for me) isn’t capable of that. Personally I see Foden much better suited to dropping deeper and being the talisman in the centre of the park.

Foden Rodri Bernardo… that’s the future central midfield for me.
Click to expand...
Bernardo as Xavi of course, if you see he has that special bond with Rodri :)

Grealish is more like iniesta style, better near to the opponent’s box

Bernardo is best near to our box, Xavi type box-to-box cornerstone of the team
 
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