10 | Jack Grealish - 2021/22 Performances

[Stoned Rose]

Had the pleasure of watching Jack at very close quarters last night.

He’s doing absolutely nothing “wrong” and is very good at retaining possession. Great football brain very evident.

It’s clear to me however that he doesn’t have the pace to go past a full back on the outside, so it seems a bit of a head scratcher why he’s been played as a left winger tbh.

For me, he needs to be played in central midfield or just off to the left, to fully utilise his skill set and get match wining impacts from him.

 

[Inter Me Nan]

No one should be writing him off.just needs a season to adjust. Just like cancelo, gundogan and plenty of other players did

He'll come good, bit more moulding from Pep yet.

 

[DATOIA]

If he starts playing lcm does the 12 month he needs to play in a pep system start again as he's learning a new position?

No, I think if he even yesterday played that LCM - he would be better than Bernardo was on that position yesterday and maybe we had seen another birth of "Jack The Great" :D

But unless Pep tries him there at least once, we won't know..

I think he will be a major breakthrough there.. Getting the ball deep and dribbling through the opponents. The only thing I worry about is his defensive skills at this stage, but in terms of possession or ball control or movement and everything - we will see something phenomenal there for sure...

But Pep is like a strict teacher - "do this to get a candy type" one..

Bernardo had to wait like 1 full year to start as a RCM and God knows if KDB wasn't injured that season, if we would ever find out how cool player we had gotten from Monaco.. Same applies to Jack, but as we could see him play for Aston Villa, more than we were watching Monaco by that time - it's obvious that Jack is truly phenomenal player..

And then.. people will question -> How on earth Aston Villa sold such a player even for 100m and what a bargain he is :D <3

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

No, I think if he even yesterday played that LCM - he would be better than Bernardo was on that position yesterday and maybe we had seen another birth of "Jack The Great" :D

But unless Pep tries him there at least once, we won't know..

I think he will be a major breakthrough there.. Getting the ball deep and dribbling through the opponents. The only thing I worry about is his defensive skills at this stage, but in terms of possession or ball control or movement and everything - we will see something phenomenal there for sure...

But Pep is like a strict teacher - "do this to get a candy type" one..

Bernardo had to wait like 1 full year to start as a RCM and God knows if KDB wasn't injured that season, if we would ever find out how cool player we had gotten from Monaco.. Same applies to Jack, but as we could see him play for Aston Villa, more than we were watching Monaco by that time - it's obvious that Jack is truly phenomenal player..

And then.. people will question -> How on earth Aston Villa sold such a player even for 100m and what a bargain he is :D <3

You do realise that this is BM you are posting on and how certain posters are never wrong ? ;) -

 

[DMA's]

No, I think if he even yesterday played that LCM - he would be better than Bernardo was on that position yesterday and maybe we had seen another birth of "Jack The Great" :D

But unless Pep tries him there at least once, we won't know..

I think he will be a major breakthrough there.. Getting the ball deep and dribbling through the opponents. The only thing I worry about is his defensive skills at this stage, but in terms of possession or ball control or movement and everything - we will see something phenomenal there for sure...

But Pep is like a strict teacher - "do this to get a candy type" one..

Bernardo had to wait like 1 full year to start as a RCM and God knows if KDB wasn't injured that season, if we would ever find out how cool player we had gotten from Monaco.. Same applies to Jack, but as we could see him play for Aston Villa, more than we were watching Monaco by that time - it's obvious that Jack is truly phenomenal player..

And then.. people will question -> How on earth Aston Villa sold such a player even for 100m and what a bargain he is :D <3

Grealish is not better than Bernardo at any facet of the game. I’m not sure how you can be so sure that grealish would be such a hit at cm. As you allude to yourself his defensive output is not to the required level for starters. He looks heavy to me and I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t eat the cleanest diet judging by his lack of explosiveness and poor work rate.

I think the problem is grealish looks great on match of the day and on YouTube highlights but now more posters are watching him for 90 mins people are underwhelmed by his output. Truth is he has never really scored or assisted enough goals to be considered an elite player imo.

In his defense he does look to be lacking confidence so I will give him the benefit of the doubt but he will never reach Bernardo, foden, mahrez, kdb levels. He could however still forge a decent career here for himself.

 

[levets]

He wasn't alone.

Bernardo, Jesus & Cancelo were even less effective

 

[OB1]

Pep's post-match comments about Brentford and the pace and rhythm we needed to beat them: "if you attack quick, they attack quicker".

I think we all want to see Grealish running hard at defences and taking them on because that's exciting to watch and he did it so well at Villa.

But Pep is a better tactician than all of us, he sees things we don't, and I suspect how we saw Grealish play last night was according to his orders (we had options on the bench, specifically Sterling, that would have been an obvious change to make if Pep was displeased with Grealish or wanted to change the tactics on that wing to be about attacking at pace).

He's been an admirer of Grealish for years. He's watched him closely and knows his skillset. Ball retention and pace control are more boring to watch, especially in a match like last night's, than direct, dynamic attack - but they're also rarer skills and they're difficult to teach to those who don't have them. It's not unfeasible that this was the reason Pep was so keen to buy him at any price. It's his love of "la pausa" all over again.

If there's space in behind the opposition defence, Grealish should be exploiting it. If he's up against a congested defence in a team with a strong counter-attack, running straight at it is statistically very likely to result in a turnover of possession and the opposition running at us at pace. That means risk and uncertainty and loss of control, and Pep hates that.

I'm not going to call Grealish's performance last night a masterclass or anything like that. Like many people here I found it frustrating to watch and I'd be much more entertained seeing him marauding down the wing as he did at Villa. I'm just open to the possibility that he was actually following orders and carrying out a tactical plan just like all the rest of our players, and it was a plan that got us a win against a tricky opponent in a week where our title rivals dropped points.

Ah, a genuinely thoughtful post.

No one can pretend that Jack has more to give but hasn't he himself just admitted that in interview.

Last night was a reserved performance from Jack but only Laporte had better pass completion. No the passes weren't special but part of it probably was down to Pep's (successful) gameplan and part is likely a case of Jack learning his role and in particular, when to play the simple pass and retain possession and when to take risks and run at defenders.

Jack is a talented player and the odds on Pep making him better player are bloody good.

 

[Phil1]

Ah, a genuinely thoughtful post.

No one can pretend that Jack has more to give but hasn't he himself just admitted that in interview.

Last night was a reserved performance from Jack but only Laporte had better pass completion. No the passes weren't special but part of it probably was down to Pep's (successful) gameplan and part is likely a case of Jack learning his role and in particular, when to play the simple pass and retain possession and when to take risks and run at defenders.

Jack is a talented player and the odds on Pep making him better player are bloody good.

The biggest issue I find on this thread comes from posters who want Jack to be the player they think he should be right now as opposed to the player Pep wants him to be moving forward. So the safe player we are seeing is classed as not good enough.
It gets silly then with two sides getting into daft arguments (me included) and around and around we go.
I'm going to thread ban myself until the end of the season I think, lifes too short.

 

[super_city_si]

Hes a lot more comfortable operating from left than in the false 9. He just doesnt grasp that position yet. Looked much better after half time.
hes obviously talented and technical enough to play in a pep team just needs time for the patterns of play to imbed.

 

[OB1]

The biggest issue I find on this thread comes from posters who want Jack to be the player they think he should be right now as opposed to the player Pep wants him to be moving forward. So the safe player we are seeing is classed as not good enough.
It gets silly then with two sides getting into daft arguments (me included) and around and around we go.
I'm going to thread ban myself until the end of the season I think, lifes too short.

I only look at these threads selectively. You are right it does get very circular, which gets very boring.

I know it doesn't do much for debate, healthly or otherwise, to fall back on Pep knows far better than any poster but it has never, IMO, been more true of a manager and a set of supporters (or media commentators and supporters of other clubs). Pep is an absolute one-off as far as I am concerned, I can't recall ever seeing a manager set so many records.