I liked both Sterling and Jesus, thought they did an awful lot for us. Nobody's perfect, every player has flaws, but they were very good servants to our club.
I also like Grealish. I think we play better with him on the pitch, and our most balanced side at the moment consists of a front 3 of him and Foden on either side of Haaland.
I'd love for him to get a bunch of goals and assists - because it is part of his role, because he's clearly lacking confidence as a result of not getting those numbers, and to try to stem the tide of the "goals are everything" vs "goals are nothing" narrative.
Goals matter. The team needs to score goals. Having a figurehead like Haaland who can be relied upon to bang them in regularly is great, but we need regular contributions from a wide range of players, and the position Jack plays in means people will be looking to him to be one of the players who pitches in with a few.
But goals aren't the only thing, or even the main thing, that a player like Grealish brings to a squad, and although the goals aren't going in right now, I think he's been playing pretty well this season.
He's a tidy skillful and selfless player who keeps everything ticking along and facilitates us moving the ball up the pitch with sustained pressure. He rarely loses it, usually makes sensible passing decisions, and tends to draw opposing players to him, affording his teammates time and space they wouldn't otherwise have. He's always showing for the ball and never stops trying, even when things aren't going his way.
I'd love to see him taking more risks. I think he's one hell of a player when he makes those driving runs, carving through defences who simply can't get the ball off him. Obviously he can't do that all the time but I think there are occasions he could where at the moment he's choosing not to. And I'd love to see him shooting more, but I know it's a delicate balance between wanting to score more goals and the need to not be selfish and to lay it off to someone in a better shooting position.
Sterling scored a shit load of goals but, especially towards the end of his time at the club, got a lot of criticism for not quite fitting in with our style of play. Too many runs into dead ends, too much unnecessary possession turnover, too many shots that should have gone in but we're too tame or too wild. With Sterling on the pitch we sacrificed a little efficiency of build-up in order to have the presence of the goal threat, and as long as he was scoring it was worth it, especially when we didn't have a genuine striker.
Grealish has the opposite problem. Fits in very well with our style of play, keeps possession, patient in the build-up, a generous passer. But he doesn't personally get the goal contribution numbers.
I'd argue that as long as the team is scoring and winning with him on the pitch then it doesn't really matter whether or not he's one of the people actually scoring the goals. The problem will occur if we're in positions where we're desperate for a goal and it falls to him and he makes poor decisions.