this thing he was different at Villa. cannot be in comparison. Villa at that time were not as decent as nowadays. they were not close to be in CL. were more of a lower half side than 5/6/7th.
in good portion of their games vs better sides they were on the backfoot trying to counter in which he had somewhat free licence to lead the attacks, with huge space for him and some other runners around him. almost never he had to be creative against two set of fives unless maybe some promoted side decided to park the bus vs them once in a while. at City 90% of the time he faces that.
Villa spent 3 fucking years in Champo which is big part of Grealish career between age about 22-24. to be fair had he spent those crucial early years at a top club in CL he would now be levels better player maybe but he was in the Champo in the same years when Palmer for example ripping up the PL. than promoted to PL for 19/20 and finished 17th. then 20/21 finished 11th. then we signed him summer 2021. imagine club like this facing heavy defensive sides? well thats not happening. kind of like Forest now, they promoted, stayed up, now doing a bit better may finish 9/10/11th. does this make top clubs or any mid clubs sit back and defend vs Forest usually?
what we face specifically is so strange as not even other top sides in the league have that little space to operate their attacks in. of course we make it worse by becoming slower and slower ourselves both in running, moving, transition and passing too. thats different issue also not pressing at all these days becoming too comfortable like in recruitment.
Grealish at Villa was in a shit side having able to attack defences that were not organized at all mostly through counters. we cant ask him to repeat that here as there isnt counterattack here. even if you put him middle, its a very different setup, he needs to be great in the pockets with limited space and great vision and imo he is bit slow in thinking too thats why he gets fouled that much at the wing too and not because he is "good" at winning freekicks which is often useless with our set piece delivery,