Grealish would face fight at United
HOW GREALISH WILL HAVE TO ADAPT... IF HE JOINS REDS
ONE of the biggest challenges facing United at the tail end of the season has been maintaining the intensity which made them so devastating upon the Premier League’s resumption.
The form which brought Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side four wins on the spin, each by a three-goal margin, owed a lot to the energy of Bruno Fernandes and Paul Pogba in midfield, and this exertion caught up with the duo in the final few matches of the season perhaps unsurprisingly so.
It’s something United will need to work on in the close season, both with recruits and with making the most of the squad they have, but one of their main targets has the qualities to make a difference.
If Jack Grealish does move to Old Trafford this summer, there are plenty of players he can look at if he needs an example of big fish continuing to thrive in a big pond. Grealish is the star at Villa; at United, he would be one of many.
United found themselves in a similar position back in 2004, coming off a third-place finish in the league and preparing to go to war with a Chelsea side strengthened by the appointment of Jose Mourinho.
A run of six straight wins over the Christmas period had left United top of the tree, but their thin squad - not helped by the underwhelming presence of Kleberson and Eric Djemba-Djemba in midfield - saw Sir Alex Ferguson’s side tail off in the second part of the season.
While Wayne Rooney’s arrival was the marquee summer signing, Ferguson also moved for Alan Smith - a key man for Leeds United even before their relegation, but someone whose stature at Old Trafford would be very different.
However, right up until a serious injury in 2006 which ended up curtailing his spell at the top, Smith did exactly what was needed of him, relinquishing the talismanic role he had held at Elland Road to become the kind of player who could slot in when required and bring the best out of his teammates.
It’s always a challenge to find the kind of player who can step in when called upon and show intensity even without a constant run of games, but plenty of topfour clubs have made it work. For Chelsea, one of the best examples is Demba Ba, a man who went from being a regular at Newcastle United to covering for the likes of Fernando Torres at Stamford Bridge.
In 18 months in west London, the Senegal international started just 16 league games, but was a far more reliable presence than anyone in that scenario had any right to be.
It can sometimes take players a little longer to recognise their new role within a squad as well as a
His success at Old Trafford would likely depend on how he adapts to no longer being the biggest fish
team, as Chelsea have discovered recently with Ross Barkley. After taking a while to find his place, with injuries not helping, the former Everton man has begun to embrace his new surroundings after moving on from his boyhood club and has shown Frank Lampard he can be trusted from the bench or from the start.
Liverpool have perhaps been the best in the league at turning players from star men at smaller clubs to key cogs in their system, be it Adam Lallana after his arrival from Southampton in 2014 or Gini Wijnaldum off the back of a season in which he barely missed a minute for relegated Newcastle.
Wijnaldum could be instructive when it comes to Grealish’s ‘big club’ role. The Magpies’ top scorer in 2015/16 with 11 league goals, it took the Dutchman until his fourth Liverpool season to pass that tally in a red shirt. There have been moments where he has been called upon to deliver in an attacking sense, with the 2019 Champions League semifinal an obvious example, but his role has needed to be more malleable in order for him to remain as important to Jurgen Klopp’s squad as he was in the north east.
If Grealish does indeed complete a move to Old Trafford this summer, his role in a United shirt might not be as immediately defined as the one he has grown into at Villa Park.
There may be games where he is called upon to run things from the middle, as he has done previously during his Villa spell while other matches may see him take on the more advanced role which has seen him top-score this season for the club he currently captains. Furthermore, there would surely be occasions where he begins games from the bench, and is only given a limited amount of time to make an impact of any sort.
United’s progress this season will be dependent on the degree to which they are able to develop plans A, B and C to help break down opponents. While Grealish found himself at the centre of a lot of things at Villa, his success at Old Trafford would likely depend on how he adapts to no longer being the biggest fish. However, as others have shown before him, there are plenty of ways to make this work.