10 | Jack Grealish - 2021/22 Performances

[samuelyeboah]

the comparison to mahrez's first season is lazy and I said it before. mahrez's issue was always decision making, the ability and magic in his feet was there. I am not seeing any magic whenever grealish is on the ball, do you?

 

[wolviedinho]

Grealish is helping the team storm the league. Give the lad a chance. Forget the fee, no one is saying that he is playing amazing but he is doing a good job and working hard.

 

[decmancity]

the comparison to mahrez's first season is lazy and I said it before. mahrez's issue was always decision making, the ability and magic in his feet was there. I am not seeing any magic whenever grealish is on the ball, do you?

Yes

 

[youngbob]

No he wasn't, slow yes, but still looked quality.

No he didn't. He was the biggest reason we lost the title in the 19/20 season because he didn't have a clue how to protect the defence. Otamendi, after three years of producing real quality at the back, was back to looking shite and chaotic because Rodri was constantly caught the wrong side of the ball. We conceded so many goals to quick transitional counter attacks that season because Rodri needed three weeks notice to spot them. He's obviously top quality now but he was a massive, massive problem in his first season.

 

[oldius]

You've got a short memory. Rodri was complete garbage in his first season.

This exemplifies why there is such conjecture about Jack: that anyone thinks that Pep repeatedly plays garbage players yet continually wins trophies is lost on me. Rodri was never garbage just as Jack is not. Rodri is now recognised as one of the very best in the world and Jack is at the stage where he is expected, by some, to have a worldy every game. Generally speaking, we don't have players who shine out as being the singular answer because we have a whole team of outstanding performers rather than relying on individual brilliance. Jack is currently being asked to play as a cog in a very well oiled machine of discipline and diligence and he is doing just fine. If he wasn't, we wouldn't keep winning.

 

[Craig]

I wish he played literally any other position than left winger. Seeing sterling skinning full backs and how good he is on his strong foot makes you so annoyed whenever jack has to turn and tuck back every time due to his lack of left foot.

Agreed but obviously Grealish couldn’t play on the right either unfortunately

 

[vin]

He’ll do well for us in a deeper role. The issue currently is that he’s played most of his football in front of Cancelo who plays great for us as an right footed left back. However he’s constantly coming inside which doesn’t give Grealish much help in terms of overlapping runs like he had with Targett at Villa. This then isolates Grealish who has never been the type of player to do an amazing piece of skill to beat his man. He relies on dummy runners of sort. He’s also struggling playing in a team who face a low block 95% of games. The games where we haven’t he’s looked better (Leeds, Leipzig etc) as he’s got space to run in to.

The issue with playing him as a 8 at the moment is the competition in there. I can’t see him starting over Kev or Bernardo in current form. Whereas Gundogan gives us a lot of control as a 8 so he’ll struggle to displace him as well. Perhaps this will look different next season but who knows..

I think he’ll come good for us but not from a left wing position.

 

[meeesh]

Was knackered with a good 20 mins left,can't believe he wasn't brought off.

Worked hard though to be fair.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Looked fitter and more disciplined today.He can still be very dangerous when allowed,but clearly he is under instruction that is very different to that of his former club and which is new to him.
He is slowly learning the ropes and how to integrate,next season will see him much improved.

Should have scored though.

 

[youngbob]

This exemplifies why there is such conjecture about Jack: that anyone thinks that Pep repeatedly plays garbage players yet continually wins trophies is lost on me. Rodri was never garbage just as Jack is not. Rodri is now recognised as one of the very best in the world and Jack is at the stage where he is expected, by some, to have a worldy every game. Generally speaking, we don't have players who shine out as being the singular answer because we have a whole team of outstanding performers rather than relying on individual brilliance. Jack is currently being asked to play as a cog in a very well oiled machine of discipline and diligence and he is doing just fine. If he wasn't, we wouldn't keep winning.

Nah, sorry. Rodri was garbage in his first season. We weren't a well-oiled machine that year like we are now with Grealish in the side, we were largely awful (by our standards) for most of the campaign. Rodri was one of the biggest problems and was often at the root of our issues that season. It's why we were miles off Liverpool in the title race and why we only won the League Cup thanks to a dodgy refereeing decision and Bravo weakly spooning a ball onto the crossbar instead of into his own net.

But despite his initial problems with positioning and lack of pace, there was a classy player within Rodri that needed to be played into the team. If he'd been dropped as often as people (including me) wanted him to be at the time, he never would have learned how to play in Pep's system and never would have progressed as a player. He's been one of the best DMs in the world for just over a year now and it's because Pep persisted with him through the darker days, but it was still a very painful road to get there at times.

Still, the 19/20 season was the necessary sacrifice to get where we are with him now. Rodri's transformation (and the team's overall development since Christmas 2020) has been a lesson in simply trusting Pep and letting him handle his players. It's the only reason I'm defending Grealish now, because not only is he playing alright in a team that's winning every week right now (something Rodri didn't do in the 19/20), but he is going to get better because of Pep. He's been giving 6/10 and 7/10 performances overall so far, and the numbers will go up.