CHRIS SUTTON ON JACK GREALISH
WHY NEW MAN CAN MAKE DIFFERENCE FOR CITY
JACK GREALISH carried the ball 7,035metres last season. That’s 4.4miles. Manchester City may be known for their ability to move the ball but they have spent £100million on a 25-year-old with super glue on his right boot. It sticks to him like no one else in english football. Clearly Pep Guardiola considers Grealish a player who can kick the team on and it will be interesting to see how and where he tells him to play. he could play as a no 8, a no 10, even a false nine, but I believe
Grealish is most lethal when playing off the left.
The inverted winger is fashionable in the modern game and that’s where he did most of his damage for aston Villa.
We saw what Grealish can do on the big stage at euro 2020. It was his cross with his weaker left foot which saw Raheem sterling score to secure england a 1-0 win over the Czech Republic.
If City come up against an opponent who is sitting deep, they can pass the ball to Grealish the maverick. he’ll find a way through.
how many times have we seen him sizing up an opponent who he’s about to beat? Too many to count.
What’s frightening for their Premier league rivals is that no other club carried the ball into the box more than City last season. The one-touch, twotouch rules don’t apply to the wingers. We’ve seen that with sterling on the left, and Riyad Mahrez on the right.
Yet I’d say Grealish is better than both of them at driving at the opposition. so although the statistics say City are already the best at finding ways into the box, we can expect them to be even better at that this season.
GREALISH is more than a foul merchant. Much more. sure, he’ll win free-kicks for City but they aren’t exactly known for their set-piece prowess. I imagine when he wins a foul, he’ll be back on his feet in a flash, ready to restart play quickly.
City aren’t the stop-start type. They like to keep it moving. It’s a process of perpetual probing under Guardiola.
so Grealish hasn’t been signed just so John stones and Co can come forward for crosses whenever a free-kick is won in the final third. he’s been signed
for his creativity and to ensure City remain the best team in the country, which will excite their supporters.
Grealish created 81 chances with Villa last season, while kevin de Bruyne created 80 with City. There will be an abundance of opportunities for whoever starts as striker, and I still think the final piece of the puzzle is a centre forward. We all marvelled at City’s use of the false nine last season. But harry kane would be a perfect fit.
VILLA fans may feel like they’ve lost their childhood sweetheart to a richer, suaver, more successful man. But this was a move we can’t begrudge Grealish for making. he was the superstar at Villa.
now he’s in a galaxy of them, but he’ll relish the challenge.
I’ve seen some criticism of the england international by supporters who don’t think he works hard enough. But there is no way Guardiola would have sanctioned this sort of outlay if he didn’t think Grealish would do the hard yards, the tracking back.
he’ll take part in all of that. he won’t be a passenger for City. he’s got stiff competition if he’s to start, from sterling to Mahrez to Phil Foden, but he’ll do whatever he needs to do to keep his place.