City need to slow this game down. It's almost arrogant
Bring on grealish to "win fouls"
£100m value right there
MARTIN SAMUEL: Grealish, by his own admission, hasn't scored enough this season. He has five in all competitions for his club. And he is not getting picked for the most important games.
www.dailymail.co.uk
- Jack Grealish's £100million move to Manchester City just isn't working
- There is no way City are going to adapt to Grealish and his style of play
- Grealish slows the game down, he takes players on and cuts inside to create
- We can see that Grealish’s natural style is not always what Guardiola desires
- Mahrez and Sterling both fit City's system – Grealish has to come to them
There is a reason West Ham want £150million for Declan Rice. Jack Grealish was £100m.
And if Manchester City will pay that for a player who increasingly doesn’t feature in their biggest matches, it is not so outlandish to believe they might pay more for one it is expected would get in.
Now, Rice won’t fetch that asking price because he doesn’t score enough goals as primarily a defensive midfielder. But Grealish, by his own admission, hasn’t scored enough this season, either. He has five in all competitions for his club, the same as Rice. And he is not getting picked for the most important games.
So that £100m looks like one of the most inflationary transfers in recent football history. It has set an incredibly high going rate for young talent in this country.
It genuinely would have been less damaging had City paid more for Harry Kane. Yes, perhaps even £150m. For Kane would have played, most weeks. He certainly would have started against the Madrid clubs, or Liverpool in the league. Grealish no longer does.
City’s furious pace was what rocked Madrid early. Had Guardiola’s players taken their chances the tie could have been as good as over by half-time. The most exhilarating passages of play saw passes exchanged at lightning speed between Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden, Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, even Gabriel Jesus.
That is not what Grealish brings to the party. He slows the game down, he takes players on. It is possible to see him cutting inside and taking several opponents out of the game as Mahrez did for the first goal, but would his cross have been quite so perfect? Mahrez has nine assists this season, Grealish three.
Yet the difference in game time between the two is only 213 minutes. Mahrez scores every 112.9 minutes and creates every 288.5; Grealish scores every 476.8 minutes and creates every 794.6. That is almost nine games between each assist. Plus, Mahrez has 23 goals.
Statistics can mislead but not by this much. There is also the eyeball test. We can see that Grealish’s natural style is not always what Guardiola desires.
At long last, an English article that criticises Grealish and his lacking impact or performances for Man City. For comparison, let's look at another player who broke a transfer record joining a Manchester club, Paul Pogba's first season (2016/17) vs Grealish (2021/22):
Pogba first season after £90m transfer
League games/mins: 30 / 2610
League goals/goals per min: 5 / 522
League assists/assists per min: 4 / 652.5
League key passes per game: 1.9
League dribbles per game: 2.4
Grealish first season (so far) after £100m transfer
League games/mins: 22 / 1638
League goals/goals per min: 2 / 817
League assists/assists per min: 2 / 817
League key passes per game: 2
League dribbles per game: 1.4
Pogba was playing within a team that finished the season 6th (deja vu
) and had guys like mata, rooney, carrick, valencia, darmian, blind, Phil Jones, rojo and fellaini as regular starters!
Key takeaway is that when a team functions and performs well even to the extreme point of winning the premier league (which man city are most likely to achieve), then it's easier for a player who ain't performed at the same high standards as the team itself, to ride it's coattails to success.
Yet put a player in a struggling and unsuccessful team overall, and suddenly there's no mask to avoid the criticism from.
www.fourfourtwo.com
