Fast counter-attacking is the one thing missing from our game as a team.
Sterling was good at that for a couple of years (2017-2019 era) and Sané was excellent at it. But whenever we’ve had the chance to quickly counter-attack over the last few years we seem to slow down, check back and wait for numbers instead of just going for it. Sterling was probably the worst for that when he played after being a good counter-attacker previously.
de Bruyne seems to be the only player who’ll consistently carry the ball directly forward and entice runners to get ahead of him. This is where I think Grealish would be good in midfield because he’s a strong runner with the ball and can carry the ball through a broken field and the quicker players could get ahead of him then.
Foden and Alvarez could be the answer to this as they both have pace, with Grealish in midfield instead of wide. But that leaves us a winger short squad-wise so we’d have to sign another winger as well as a left back.