I thought first half he was very average but played better 2nd half. I think I get frustrated watching him on the left because we look unbalanced and I think Foden is very wasted doing the role of a dog chasing lost causes and battling big centre backs with his back to goal. Where as with Foden left and Sterling right we can really stretch the pitch again and beat defenders on the outside.
With Jack out on the left it’s stop and come back again on repeat. You could say Mahrez does similar on the right but he’s got a wand of a left foot for whipping crosses in or he’s very good at creating half a yard for a shot. Grealish hasn’t shown either of those abilities yet. No doubting he’s a great talent and as pointed out lots of players have taken a year to settle properly into this great side. Hopefully the same happens with Jack but if he doesn’t get shifted inside I struggle to see it happening as stuck out on the left just doesn’t look great for him.
I can empathise with your frustrations, I’m pretty sure we all can. Every season Pep’s teams always seem to have a player who’s somewhat carried, normally in their first season and still getting acclimatised. It makes the dominance all the more impressive.
There’ll be a player next year that comes in, with qualities that Pep values, and is thrown into the midst of the well oiled machine. They’ll struggle and we’ll all question it, but we should by now trust in the track record that Pep’s got behind him.
To your point about Grealish not showing crossing ability or ability to create a half yard for the shot; I’d agree on the second point, Grealish seems more comfortable weaving his way out of a tight spot and recycling. I’m hoping that will change once he’s up to speed.
I feel it’s a little harsh to say he hasn’t shown crossing ability - he put in a peach of a ball across the 6 yard box yesterday, but (as was the case on 3 occasions, yesterday alone) we had no-one there to finish it off.