10 | Jack Grealish - 2021/22 Performances

[EL APACHE TEVEZ]

He’s become a scapegoat by lots of fans who jump on the bandwagon.

played really well last night and I’m sure has a very bright future with city.

They’ll all be licking is arse next season

 

[Txiki Txiki Bang Bang]

They’ll all be licking is arse next season

That's a very unhealthy way to show appreciation to a footballer...or anyone.

 

[clarion]

Palmer could have play a lot more…

 

[Sir peace frog]

Palmer could have play a lot more…

He was getting minutes until he got injured

 

[EL APACHE TEVEZ]

That's a very unhealthy way to show appreciation to a footballer...or anyone.

True though

 

[mattcity5]

Man shut the fuck up. It's clear for everyone to see that people are quick to call out Sterling, Jesus and Mahrez but turn a blind eye when Grealish does a "Grealish"

Someone making mistakes in their first season deserves more leeway than someone making the same mistakes season after season.

 

[Sir peace frog]

i thought he was excellent when he came on, could of had 2 goals and was a threat ,until we decided we were wimbledon and hoofed it forward.

 

[Big Joe Corrigan]

That's a very unhealthy way to show appreciation to a footballer...or anyone.

Not if it’s Snorky.

 

[Lauz9888]

Not to add any further weight to the Grealish debate, but Mahrez returned 24 goals & assists in his first season and Bernardo 20 goals & assists in his first d
season.

If people are going to offer the positives of Grealish in a City shirt, at least do it without introducing fiction.

Granted Bernardo and Mahrez weren’t the players they are now, but both quadrupled what Jack has offered so far in their ‘poor’ or settling first season. Or Sane in contrast who was much younger and never seemed to grasp what Pep requires, still returned 8 goals & 9 assists.

In terms of productivity, Grealish is just behind where Cancelo was in his first season. Who is a full back.

His productivity has been truly woeful, even when compared to other ‘slow’ starters for City.

We all want to be positive about him, but let’s stick to the truth.

Goal contributions across all club competitions for the three players in question, covering the season they joined us and the 3 seasons prior, making no comment on and no allowance for the quality of the competition, time spent injured, or freak events like Grealish getting 2G 3A in one match against Liverpool last year. With their age at the start of the season in brackets after the season, for a little context.

Mahrez:
15/16 (24) - 18G 10A = 28
16/17 (25) - 10G 7A = 17
17/18 (26) - 13G 13A = 26
18/19 (27) - 12G 12A = 24
The year he joined us his goal contributions equalled 92% of what he achieved the previous year and 101% his average of the previous 3 years.

Bernardo:
14/15 (20) - 10G 4A = 14
15/16 (21) - 7G 3A = 10
16/17 (22) - 11G 12A = 23
17/18 (23) - 9G 11A = 20
The year he joined us his goal contributions equalled 87% of what he achieved the previous year and and 128% his average of the previous 3 years.

Grealish:
18/19 (22) - 6G 8A = 14
19/20 (23) - 10G 8A = 18
20/21 (24) - 7G 12A = 19
21/22 (25) - 5G 3A = 8
The year he joined us his goal contributions (so far!) equal 42% of what he achieved the previous year and 47% his average of the previous 3 years.

This tells us 3 things:
1) Judge his numbers against his record, not the others'. I'm working on the assumption here that we bought him knowing and liking his skillset, not expecting him to be something he's not. So yeah, his first season he's got a third as many GAs as Mahrez got the year he joined. But Grealish's annual average return before he joined us was 17, where Mahrez's was nearly 24. So we surely haven't bought him expecting him to return Mahrez numbers (although we should be looking to push him to around 2 thirds).

2) That said, he has struggled to deliver the numbers this year. I don't necessarily think it's the big crisis some make out. Goals and assists are the bread and butter of football, he wants them and we want them for him, but nonetheless it is possible to contribute in other ways and (although he's often been frustrating to watch this year) I get the impression - from what he and Pep have said, from the game time he's been getting which is broadly on par with Mahrez and Bernardo's first seasons, from Pep's general attitude towards him - that he is grasping what's been asked of him and contributing in other ways (as the link @plebhead8 shared demonstrates)

3) Mahrez and Bernardo both saw a slight dip across both goals and assists the year they joined us compared to the previous year. Jack's seen a similar dip in his goals stats, but what's really hit him is his assist numbers have collapsed.

I think the absence of a real striker has hurt, because he's got no previous experience of providing for a false 9 or any system where there's no up-front focal point. Where Mahrez, Bernardo and the rest at have learnt that system alongside the rest of the team and had years to acclimatise to it gradually alongside players they know well, working out how best to play in the system, Jack's been thrown into an established system and has found it hard to work out how to maximise his talents.

Jack got 12 assists last year, comparable to both Mahrez and Bernardo the respective years they joined us. Both those years, we had Aguero scoring 30+ goals, not to mention our other players chipping in for fun. Villa's top goalscorer last season was 16-goal Ollie Watkins.

I don't think he's ever going to score a shit load of goals for us. But give him even a half-decent striker and he'll smash the assists.

 

[grim up north]

What are you on about he’s been here nearly a full season. He’s just had two piss easy chances to put us in the CL
final, eventually make a telling contribution to our season and he failed.. He cost £100 m and is one of our highest earners..

Made me laigh