10 | Jack Grealish - 2022/23 Performances

Status
Not open for further replies.
What I don’t understand is we paid more than 30m more than our previous highest transfer (and set a PL transfer record in the process) in getting him and we didn’t really need him. Further, our best player wide left (Foden) then got moved around to accommodate him and there was less minutes across the frontline for Jesus and Sterling. Some will say he should be played in the middle, but he’s not better than what we have there either. I “hope” he proves himself and has many years of success with City. I’m just not confident that it’s a foregone conclusion he will.
 
schfc6 said:
Without wanting to sound rude, you’ve been a member 3 months.

The reason Grealish’s thread this and last season is so busy is because there were a number of fan boys who couldn’t see any fault in Jack, would just tell anyone who wasn’t impressed that they didn’t understand football. When his dismal returns became undeniable, the fan boys then said it was down to no striker, not being a forward, left footed left back, or the one I still don’t get, being played out of position??

There are a number of posters who remain unconvinced. But most seem happy to give him time.
But some get annoyed with certain posters not defending Grealish, but insulting anyone who remains unconvinced.

Sadly, his price tag, his wages and the fact we’ve put a lot of eggs in the Grealish basket will all raise the pressure on him.

If he’s still performing as is by Christmas, I do think they’ll be heat coming down on him. I’d never boo a blue in the stadium, but I’m entitled to voice my opinion, concern on a player performance thread.
Click to expand...

It’s not far wrong to say he’s playing out of position. Although maybe that’s the wrong way to put it.

Someone posted that average heat map of when he’s at Villa to here and there’s a clear difference. At Villa he was drifting all over the width of the pitch in the opposition half. Here it shows he’s very pretty restricted to playing out by the left touchline for the most part.

So it’s very evident that he had a more of a free role at Villa. But here we play with a different kind of discipline and have quality players all over the pitch, so it’s not necessary for us to have him in a free role.

But I do think he needs to play with more confidence and be more direct. There has been too many times when he could have gone at defenders and made things happen but he’s opted not to lose the ball and play it safe. Whether that’s instructed or a choice, I don’t know, but if you want a player to just keep the ball by playing a short pass back 2 seconds after getting it, it doesn’t take a £100m player to do that.

We have seen something in him that made us pay that fee and I don’t think it was just putting him on the pitch to play 2 yard passes. We’ve seen flashes of how good he can be, the ability is there. So even if his role here is more restricted in terms of positioning, I still think he can do much more within that and I think he is allowed more freedom than it has appeared.

I think we’ll see improvements from last season. He’s not the new boy anymore and seems to be a confident and good character around the players and that could be a sign of being settled, so maybe that will be reflected on the pitch. I’d imagine most eyes will be on Haaland now, rather than everyone looking at Grealish and his price tag and some of the weight of expectation is off and he can just play.
 
Pollocksheader said:
That’s the problem though isn’t it, people are waiting for him to fail because of last year. It was the start of a new season where everyone was shite yet in the crowd and on here, he gets a large portion of the blame. We will forever have a boo boy. Take Saturday in isolation and again there was most of the team who were probably worse than him. Him not taking risks and playing it safe was probably better than everyone else booting it out of play.
Click to expand...
No one is waiting for him to fail..its the exact opposite....People are waiting for him to perform and succeed.
Lots of players get criticism....Grealish should not be immune to it.....

He also gets a lot of defence on here....more than others received in the past
 
schfc6 said:
For me, Jesus is a far better fit for City and younger. But we’ll have to see.
Click to expand...
This This This.

I was a critic of Jesus regarding his goal scoring BUT he was a far better team player than Grealish and brought far more to the team
 
Obviously, he'll come good or he won't.
Nothing anyone says on here will make an iota of difference in that.
I think he'll come good but at this moment in time he's not a guaranteed starter for me and that's a bit weird for a 100m player.
 
This is a post about what Pep's thinking. Read a professional analysts and it is interesting. It says

Cutting inside itself is not a bad thing in itself - if it is utilised properly. And very clearly it is a pattern of Pep's tactic plan because the same sequence of play repeated many times in all 3 pre-season games. Grealish is a bit too orthodox and he tried to repeat this pattern too much (when sometimes he can really shoot or make a different choice).

Step 1 Grealish picks up the ball from the left and run towards the box, cut in and attract as many defenders as possible to the left flank. As we see in the graph here. Importantly he needs to make sure Fabinho - who usually marks KDB - is out of play - it means Zone 14 is free.
Step 2 Pass to KDB who is in Zone 14. He now has 3 choices. Halaand (if he makes a run) Mahrez or shot by himself. Screen Shot 2022-08-03 at 07.18.22.png.
Step 3 Thiago sees the danger and tracks back with great speed. With his pressure, KDB delays a bit and chooses Mahrez on the right side. Mahrez made a shot on target.

Halaand movement can be inproved here. He stayed behind on the far side. It was common when we played without a striker. Gundo and Bernado often wait here for the cross coming in because their are shot and without great pace. But for Halaand - he can choose to run in behind with his speed and then Mahrez can have 2 choices - shot by himself or slip to Halaand.

Screen Shot 2022-08-03 at 19.55.17.png

The sequence is very similar to what we saw in the opening goal vs Germany. Sterling started the cut in run from the right side. A difference is - the lack of overlapping from the opposite side.

Remember how Luke Shaw overlapped and made the cross in? If Walker overlaps Mahrez here, Mahrez will have 3 choices and overlapping Walker will be the best. Halaand will have a good chance to finish it with a low cross from Walker. It will be more threatening than Mahrez shot by himself because the goalkeeper needs to switch his attention twice.

However Walker arrives late - it is quite understandable because he has to take heavy defending responsibility in the back - and he is the more defensive fullback of the pair.
---

This explains why Pep wants to buy a left back like Cucurella who can play as a left center back like Walker. Then the left full back can act as the "more defensive fullbacks of the pair" and release the right back (Cancelo or Walker) to be more attacking on a higher position - and arrives in time for Mahrez. It is needed especially facing team like Liverpool whose right winger carries the bigger threat. Imaging Cancelo overlaps Mahrez and put a cross in to find Halaand! Remember Halaand is left footed - a cross from right to find his feet - will be deadly.

The reason why a pair of inverted winger are needed here. The first ball carrier winger can attract more attention when cutting inside. The second "finisher" winger can have a bigger angle of shot to max the threat when he receives the ball (remember how many times Foden's shot from left flank slips past the far post? Natural winger has much less angle to shot).


Why Pep designed this pattern? Not focus on running in the space behind?

- One possible answer might be - having a pair of natural winger to running behind is more threatening but more risky. When all 3 forwards running behind, the midfielder will deliver a cross and it has a very high chance to be intercepted. Especially facing a team like Liverpool when their defenders are very tall and they are very good at counter attack. As we seen in this game after the subs came on, KDB's cross find Foden and resulted a goal. But Gundo's cross was intercepted and resulted in a very dangerous counter. In the end the defense was tired out by multiple round of attack and started to make silly errors - like the penalty, Bernado gave ball away, etc, and we still lost...

Then why we played with a pair of natural winger (Foden and Jesus) in the Home game vs Liverpool last season?

- Pep gambled in that game
- Our defensive players were much fitter than current situation and can deal with the risk of counter a little better.

It explains a lot why Pep is so eager to bring in more full backs. With out the reserve full backs available on the bench, it is not wise to speed up the game.
 
Last edited:
While Haaland got criticism in the media, I saw plenty on Saturday that tells me he's going to be fabulous for us.

I've yet to get that vibe from Jack. I hope he comes good but it just doesn't feel like he's going to cut it in a City shirt.
 
robbieh said:
While Haaland got criticism in the media, I saw plenty on Saturday that tells me he's going to be fabulous for us.

I've yet to get that vibe from Jack. I hope he comes good but it just doesn't feel like he's going to cut it in a City shirt.
Click to expand...
Yeah, sadly I feel the same. Jack was great at Villa, drifting all over the place etc. but things at City are completely different. He has to stick to Peps way of playing, meaning stay out left.
I just can't see him having the impact that Foden has or Sane had out there. He just doesnt seem right for us.

Hope I'm wrong I will gladly eat my words.
Haaland and Alverez on the other hand will be superb.
 
Jack needs to improve a lot, otherwise he will be benched sooner, than it happened last year...

Last year it was OK, Pep's system takes time, we knew Jack's skills and potential, so there was nothing to worry about..

Now, it's time to make a step forward...

Cause last year we had 5 attackers and 0 centre forwards.. Torres got injured and sold, Palmer also had a big injury.. So Pep had to use Foden and Sterling as False9s and as a result - he had minutes for Jack..

Now this situation has changed.. Foden will be fully dedicated to LW / RW positions, I don't think Pep will use him as a False9 anymore.. Palmer is back and hopefully will have a full season.. Young Alvarez needs time and has hunger to be involved in all three positions.. Mahrez..

So Jack has quite a competition here.. 6 goals and 4 assists like last season, won't be enough, even 12 goals and 8 assists.. Jesus + Sterling had 30 goals and 20 assists last season.. Who will fill that gap ? It must be Jack, cause Foden + Mahrez scored like 38 goals and had 25 assists, you can't expect more from them.. Haaland will hopefully score at least 20 goals, but 10 goals and 20 assists should come from Jack + Julian + Palmer and most responsibility lies here on Jack, you can't expect those numbers from young boys..

Jack has 'make-or-break' season, that's the fact..
 
DATOIA said:
Jack needs to improve a lot, otherwise he will be benched sooner, than it happened last year...

Last year it was OK, Pep's system takes time, we knew Jack's skills and potential, so there was nothing to worry about..

Now, it's time to make a step forward...

Cause last year we had 5 attackers and 0 centre forwards.. Torres got injured and sold, Palmer also had a big injury.. So Pep had to use Foden and Sterling as False9s and as a result - he had minutes for Jack..

Now this situation has changed.. Foden will be fully dedicated to LW / RW positions, I don't think Pep will use him as a False9 anymore.. Palmer is back and hopefully will have a full season.. Young Alvarez needs time and has hunger to be involved in all three positions.. Mahrez..

So Jack has quite a competition here.. 6 goals and 4 assists like last season, won't be enough, even 12 goals and 8 assists.. Jesus + Sterling had 30 goals and 20 assists last season.. Who will fill that gap ? It must be Jack, cause Foden + Mahrez scored like 38 goals and had 25 assists, you can't expect more from them.. Haaland will hopefully score at least 20 goals, but 10 goals and 20 assists should come from Jack + Julian + Palmer and most responsibility lies here on Jack, you can't expect those numbers from young boys..

Jack has 'make-or-break' season, that's the fact..
Click to expand...

Agree with most of what you said but just one thing.
"Jesus + Sterling had 30 goals and 20 assists last season.. Who will fill that gap ?"
The apparent answer are Halaand and Alvarez...
Perhaps it sounds weird but I have a feeling that our winger/midfielder should actually change their mindset of scoring instead of focusing more on serving the strikers! It was so obvious in the last 30 min of the game when Liverpool served their striker chances after chances but we were not!
 
DATOIA said:
Jack needs to improve a lot, otherwise he will be benched sooner, than it happened last year...

Last year it was OK, Pep's system takes time, we knew Jack's skills and potential, so there was nothing to worry about..

Now, it's time to make a step forward...

Cause last year we had 5 attackers and 0 centre forwards.. Torres got injured and sold, Palmer also had a big injury.. So Pep had to use Foden and Sterling as False9s and as a result - he had minutes for Jack..

Now this situation has changed.. Foden will be fully dedicated to LW / RW positions, I don't think Pep will use him as a False9 anymore.. Palmer is back and hopefully will have a full season.. Young Alvarez needs time and has hunger to be involved in all three positions.. Mahrez..

So Jack has quite a competition here.. 6 goals and 4 assists like last season, won't be enough, even 12 goals and 8 assists.. Jesus + Sterling had 30 goals and 20 assists last season.. Who will fill that gap ? It must be Jack, cause Foden + Mahrez scored like 38 goals and had 25 assists, you can't expect more from them.. Haaland will hopefully score at least 20 goals, but 10 goals and 20 assists should come from Jack + Julian + Palmer and most responsibility lies here on Jack, you can't expect those numbers from young boys..

Jack has 'make-or-break' season, that's the fact..
Click to expand...

He doesn't have anywhere to hide - this season he needs to show us how good he is. Foden came on and did so much more, whilst they might be different players Jack does need to make more of an effort off the ball to get in behind and get into scoring positions. He always wants the ball to feet and to create for others, that's his strength - running with the ball but unless he has a full back overlapping or runners in behind I'm not sure how effective he can be in our team. There's no point running with it to then pass it backwards.

I have a feeling he'll strike up a really good relationship with Haaland and Alvarez and produce this season though.
 
I still think Grealish would be more effective playing more central in order to be less predictable having options either side and can commit the defenders a bit more. He has quality, no doubt, we just haven’t seen it anywhere near consistently enough.

I do fancy him to have a much improved season this time around though.
 
i♥city said:
Maybe a loan (with an option to buy) back to villa to rekindle his spark?
Click to expand...
LOL we are rich but FFS, how much would the fee be, you would struggle to get 1/2 your money back with his form last season.

The club and Grealish simply cannot afford to have him to have another meh season, he has to hit the ground running, starting at West Ham.
 
Crooked_rain said:
It’s not far wrong to say he’s playing out of position. Although maybe that’s the wrong way to put it.

Someone posted that average heat map of when he’s at Villa to here and there’s a clear difference. At Villa he was drifting all over the width of the pitch in the opposition half. Here it shows he’s very pretty restricted to playing out by the left touchline for the most part.

So it’s very evident that he had a more of a free role at Villa. But here we play with a different kind of discipline and have quality players all over the pitch, so it’s not necessary for us to have him in a free role.

But I do think he needs to play with more confidence and be more direct. There has been too many times when he could have gone at defenders and made things happen but he’s opted not to lose the ball and play it safe. Whether that’s instructed or a choice, I don’t know, but if you want a player to just keep the ball by playing a short pass back 2 seconds after getting it, it doesn’t take a £100m player to do that.

We have seen something in him that made us pay that fee and I don’t think it was just putting him on the pitch to play 2 yard passes. We’ve seen flashes of how good he can be, the ability is there. So even if his role here is more restricted in terms of positioning, I still think he can do much more within that and I think he is allowed more freedom than it has appeared.

I think we’ll see improvements from last season. He’s not the new boy anymore and seems to be a confident and good character around the players and that could be a sign of being settled, so maybe that will be reflected on the pitch. I’d imagine most eyes will be on Haaland now, rather than everyone looking at Grealish and his price tag and some of the weight of expectation is off and he can just play.
Click to expand...

Spot on. At the moment any average player can play the way he's playing. You pay the big bucks for somebody special, a game changer/winner otherwise there's no point buying them
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Unread Posts

Don't have an account? Register now and see fewer ads!

SIGN UP
Back
Top