QUICKSILVER
Grealish confident of bagging trio of medals in his first season at City
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 United he maintains that his lofty ambitions are bang on course.
Asked about the club’s chances of a mouthwatering treble of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, he said: “I think so
(we can win it all). I obviously 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.”
Grealish’s stats for goals, assists, and dribbling do not match up to those he recorded last season at Villa but the England star is not too worried.
He admitted: “I think they are important because at the end of the day that is what people look at, such as how many goal involvements us attackers have – especially when you come to a club with the price tag I have.
“If you don’t get some goals and assists for a few games then everyone starts to talk. 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 goals 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 for a fact, the longer I am here the more I will improve.”
Glitterati
Grealish’s dribbling skills have been less in evidence among the City glitterati, the likes of Kevin De Bruyne (below), Bernardo
Silva, Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez and company often the main operators, unlike at Villa where the 26-year-old was the main man.
He added:
“That 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 help spice City’s thrashing of Leeds with Grealish revealing: “The day before in training we were working on crossing and finishing, and I surprised myself with a few headers, scoring with a few.
“So against Leeds to get myself on the scoresheet with a header, which obviously I don’t do a lot, was perfect.”
Now for Grealish it is all systems go for the perfect finish to his first season at the Etihad.