10 | Jack Grealish - 2021/22 Performances

[yankblue]

I definitely understand people being concerned with Grealish because we have literally never seen a player struggle in their first season under Pep before making massive improvements in their second.

 

[simon23]

Since you talk about the stats from FBref I want to point out some details.

The data you list here is accumulated data which is heavy influenced by playing time. Grealish and Jesus both suffered weeks of injuries. xA per 90 will reflect the actual performance better.

If we look at xA per 90 min in PL, the ranking is KDB > Jesus > Grealish > Foden. If we look at xA per 90 min across all competitions, the ranking is KDB> Foden = Grealish(tie) >Jesus.

Taking set pieces especially corners will contribute a lot in xA stats and key pass stats. I am not suggesting Jesus or Grealish should start to take set pieces but it is quite outstanding for them to get high xA almost purely from open play and get similar stats closed to regular set pieces taker (KDB/Foden/Mahrez).

You also mentioned "the pass before the assist". Actually FBref has some similar data related to that. SCA - shot created actions and GCA - goal created actions. They take both of the 2 actions before the shot/goal instead of only looking at the assists.

In terms of SCA per 90 in PL.
Grealish ranks 3rd after KDB and TAA
A quite a big portion of KDB/TAA SCA come from "dead pass" which means set pieces.
Grealish ranks 1st in "live pass" SCA even higher than KDB. (Note: not considering some random subs who has less than 2 games time).

If we look at GCA per 90.
Jesus ranks 1st in PL. TAA ranks 9th. Phil ranks 12th. KDB ranks 20th. Mahrez ranks 25. Grealish only ranks 65. It indicates that the convertion rate of chances generated by Grealish are low.

Is it caused by the quality of the chances Grealish generated? I used to think so.

However if we look at GCA per 90 from "live pass". Grealish is actually better than KDB and Mahrez. The ranking is Jesus > Foden > Grealish > KDB > Mahrez. This means the avg quality of the chances Grealish generated from open play are not worse than Foden or KDB while on frequency side Grealish is even better.

All these stats show that Grealish is quite good at "the pass before assist" and maybe even better than KDB if in the open play. He is still the good playmaker we used to see in the past. Let's hope that the new joiners in the summer will help on the conversion side.

If you look at England games since last summer, Grealish actually has a quite good goal involvement status. He is directly involved in goals (either G/A or a goal comes from the penalty or set pieces he wins) in all his starts except one start against Poland. This is a quite amazing status given he is not the main man or focus point like Kane/Sterling in the structure of England team. This also indicates that while his status is not good in the club, his form is actually not THAT bad because he is pulling good stats in the England team at the same time.

I don't think that he will ever be successful in a false 9 system. I never believe that last summer plan was Grealish OR Kane. It was Grealish AND Kane all the way.

Actually if you look back I said I don't like using stats as they can be misleading and slow pointed out that's why I didn't use Gundos for example

Why wouldn't you include set pieces...they are part of the game.....? If Grealish ain't raking them it's because there are others that are better...Kdb and foden for instance are very good with a free kick ' Grealish is down the pecking order for a reason.
Is Grealish seen as better with the pass before the assist cause he is in that position to do so..ie its usually another player with the assist...eg kdb....the pass before the assist could be a 5 yd sideways pass which again any player can make
....when it was Davis Silva it was more often a ball threaded between players...huge difference

England games are irrelevant.......we are talking about Grealish in the city team......he fits in the England team ...the question is does he fit 8n well enough for us.

I agree with your last paragraph...he may well be more successful with a forward like Kane or Haaland...but that could be said of all the otherd...kdb, mahrez whipping balls into one of those 2 will get more assist...someone like sterling or foden will probably score more ( sterling did when kun played).....
The best adapt......look at job pogba had ultimately failed at utd....how may times have we heard...buying x player will release pogba...and it hasn't. The likes of foden, mahrez, bernardo can adapt to any system because they are better all around footballers, both physically and intellectually

 

[CityBlu]

At the price we paid, everyone assumed he'd be brilliant (not sure why, as he was only a bench warmer for England in the Euros). But Pep saw the raw talent and knew he could create what he wanted from Grealish's building block. It will take Pep a year to make him good enough for City. The player we see next season will be much better, but Pep deserves that credit. The only reason people complain is because we paid massively over the odds for him. I'm not sure he'll ever be worth 100 million even after Pep worked his magic, but that's all water under the bridge now.

 

[blueparrot]

I think it's more that Grealish having anything from an underwhelming to good season, depending on your perspective, is not going to be the headline, or even in the top three headlines, in whether we win one or both of the biggest completions we are still competing for.

And actually captures how I feel about him. He hasn't been the best person on the pitch for us yet in any game, but I can't think of any games where has been the worst. Hasn't won us a game, hasn't lost us a game.

I suspect for a few it’s more to do with those that think we spent the money on Grealish instead of a striker and expect him to score the goals. We didn’t buy him instead of a striker, and if we had spent on a striker last summer we wouldn’t be buying Haaland this summer.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

I suspect for a few it’s more to do with those that think we spent the money on Grealish instead of a striker and expect him to score the goals. We didn’t buy him instead of a striker, and if we had spent on a striker last summer we wouldn’t be buying Haaland this summer.

He's a tricky one, he really is. I don't think he has been great, but I don't think he has been poor either. For the money we spent I can totally see why people would want a matchwinner rather than a good squad player, but we are in the lucky position that we can spend that sort of money on him.

But totally agree, he's nothing to do with whether we got Kane or not. The money was there, the player wasn't, one year later the market has changed again.

I'm of the opinion that every single player that works hard and wins a medal with us deserves my respect, and I've seen Grealish do more than enough in games to be part of the conversation and there will still be key games for him to come. If we win one or both of what's left it's money well spent imo (and it's not my money, so who gives a shit).

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

There was nothing dodgy about Laporte in the last game!

I think Laporte has low-key one of the most unfair reputations in the squad among fans. He's been very good all season, better than Dias if you ask me, and a key part of why we are challenging in the way we are (though I appreciate I'm shifting the focus somewhat, and will carry on that discussion the Laporte thread!).

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

At the price we paid, everyone assumed he'd be brilliant (not sure why, as he was only a bench warmer for England in the Euros). But Pep saw the raw talent and knew he could create what he wanted from Grealish's building block. It will take Pep a year to make him good enough for City. The player we see next season will be much better, but Pep deserves that credit. The only reason people complain is because we paid massively over the odds for him. I'm not sure he'll ever be worth 100 million even after Pep worked his magic, but that's all water under the bridge now.

A fucking Tsunami under the bridge

 

[OB1]

Top 20 ...is hardly anyting to crow about......that means that is at least one player in every team better than him and everything at Villa went through Grealish so again that is misleading.

Applejuice has answered you nicely on stats but I will just pick out the above gem, which is completely wrong. When Jack ranked 20th, 8 of the players ahead of him were City and Liverpool players. Son and Kane were a couple of the others.

His stats were notably better than average, as were his performances, which is why City paid so much for him.

 

[simon23]

Applejuice has answered you nicely on stats but I will just pick out the above gem, which is completely wrong. When Jack ranked 20th, 8 of the players ahead of him were City and Liverpool players. Son and Kane were a couple of the others.

His stats were notably better than average, as were his performances, which is why City paid so much for him.

Applejuiec did nothing of the sort - he answered but the answers were flawed imho which i replied to him about

And again for the hard of reading...I dont care about stats, i only mentioned them due to your use of them...Ive said 3 times stats can be floored either way.

His performances havent been bad (ive also said this over a number of weeks) - however his performances have been notably below that of others.

Answer this one...CL final - does Grealish make the starting 11 with everyone fit....??

For me not a chance due to the fact that he offers very little going forward in terms of actual goal threat or creativity. He doesnt push the opposition full backs backwarrds nor is he great at pressing (Foden, Bernardo, Sterling and esp Jesus are all considerably better than him in this area - KDB not so much as he is poor at it as well)

At 2-0 up I would bring him on for the last 20mins or so as he offers a measure of ball retention that certainly Sterling for instance doesnt....KDB as the game goes on and pressure builds up also loses the ball a bit more but you leave him on the pitch as teams are scared stiff of him.

 

[EL APACHE TEVEZ]

Super super jack,super Jackie Grealish