WE’RE GOING FOR THE JACKPOT
£100m star: City can win it all... that’s why I came
JACK GREALISH is starting to believe all his Christmases are coming at once as he looks forward to a glut of winners’ medals.
English football’s first £100million player left Aston Villa for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in search of honours and, on the eve of a Premier League trip to Newcastle, he maintains that his lofty ambitions are bang on track.
Asked about the club’s chances of landing a treble of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, he replied: “I think so, we can win it all. I don’t want to put too much pressure on the team, but we have so much talent here and so many good players, I really think we could go all the way in a few competitions this season.
“That is what I have come here for, to win trophies, so, hopefully, come the end of the season I will have a few medals around my neck.”
So far his stats, goals and assists don’t match up to those he recorded last season at Villa.
But Grealish is
not too worried.
He said: “I think the stats are important because that is what people look at, such as how many goal-movements we attackers have – especially when you come to a club with the price-tag that I have.
“If you don’t get goals and assists for a few games, then everyone starts to talk. I think stats are important, but there will be times when you are playing well and the goals and assists just aren’t coming. That is what I have felt like recently.
“In the game at Watford, I could have scored four or five, but I came off the pitch with nothing.
“Even the Leeds game we scored seven goals and I got one. I am just trying to improve all the time. I know the longer I am here, the more I’ll improve.”
Grealish’s dribbling skills have been less in evidence among the City glitterati, with Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Raheem
Sterling and Riyad Mahrez often the main operators – unlike at Villa where the 26-year-old was the main man.
He added: “That dribbling stat is something I need to pick up on again and start doing because that was something I was doing the most when I was at Villa.
“But I think the main stats are the goals and assists. They are the ones I am trying to work on the most.”
A rare headed goal helped spice City’s thrashing of Leeds and Grealish revealed: “The day before in training we were working on crossing and finishing and I surprised myself with a few headers, scoring a few.
“So against Leeds to get myself on the scoresheet with a header, which I don’t do a lot of, was perfect.”
Now Grealish believes it’s all systems go for the perfect finish to his first season at the Etihad.