After being left out of Euro 2024, the Manchester City player regained his form to earn a starting place for his club and the English national team
Pep Guardiola had a simple message for Jack Grealish When he returned to the Manchester City this summer, after being left out of the England squad for the Eurocup 2024. His omission came as a surprise, not least to Grealish himself, as well as to the mayonnaise brand that had made him the face of its summer advertising campaign, but Guardiola did his best to turn it into a positive.
“Sometimes you need something to ignite you to be better,” Guardiola said when asked about the then coach’s decision. Inglaterra, Gareth SouthgateThe hope is that if Grealish misses the tournament in Germany, it will be City who benefit from it.
Jack Grealish has returned to the England squad after missing the Euros. Despite having endured a tough time at Manchester City, he is determined to prove his doubters wrong. Eddie Keogh – The FA/The FA via Getty Images
Grealish is no stranger to suggestions that he has something more to prove. It was the same in 2019 as he prepared for his first season back in the Premier League. Premier League with the Aston VillaHe also faced similar questions in 2021, after City spent £100m to make him the most expensive British footballer in history; there were further doubts a year later, after a modest first season at the Etihad Stadium, over whether he could measure up under Guardiola.
Grealish He has taken a proactive approach to the new season, using Juventus’ training facilities while on holiday in Italy to ensure he returned to City in the best possible shape. He also declined the offer of an extended break to return to the City Football Academy (CFA) home earlier. On the club’s pre-season tour of the United States, he even spoke of “proving people wrong”.
Guardiola has been impressed, particularly with Grealish’s efforts in training in America, and would have started against Manchester United in the Community Shield and against Chelsea in City’s first game in the Premier League had it not been for an injury that occurred a couple of days before the trip to Wembley.
“I loved it,” he said. Guardiola when asked about Grealish’s summer. “It’s every session: his commitment and his intensity, his aggression on the ball, that’s it. After that, his quality will do the rest. Hopefully he can maintain that until the end of the season.”
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And therein lies the challenge of GrealishBy his own admission, last season did not go to plan, largely due to a combination of injuries and loss of confidence. He played well at times, particularly during the team’s long spells out in December and April, but he also spent long periods on the fringes of Guardiola’s ideas. The City manager values consistency above all else, and once you are out, it is very difficult for the pendulum to swing back.
Last month at the Opera House in Manchester, Phil Foden was named PFA Player of the Year for 2023-24. But 12 months earlier, during the club’s career, City On the way to the treble, Foden missed part of the season after an appendectomy in March and did not regain his place in time to start the FA Cup or Premier League finals. Champions LeagueGrealish was chosen instead.
He also took to the Opera stage that night. Cole Palmer. Collected his Young Player of the Year award And, in front of Guardiola, the English playmaker explained that part of his success was due to a transfer to Chelsea motivated by the lack of playing time in the CityThe irony is that if Grealish hadn’t played so well during the treble year, Palmer might have been given more opportunities at the Etihad and stayed.
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Had that happened, Palmer would not have had a brilliant debut season in the Chelsea and potentially Grealish would have had an extra place in the squad Eurocup. If there is a glimmer of hope for Grealish As Foden and Palmer have shown, a year is a long time in football. Indeed, Grealish returned to the City squad last weekend in a 3-1 win over West Ham United and has done enough to earn caretaker manager Lee Carsley a second call-up to England for the 2019/20 campaign. UEFA Nations League against the Republic of Ireland and Finland.
But he knows that his chances of emulating Foden y Palmer PFA award winners are few and far between. Foden won the top honour after registering 19 goals and eight assists in the Premier LeaguePalmer had 22 goals and 11 assists. Grealish, meanwhile, has never scored more than eight Premier League goals in a season – with Villa in 2019-20 – and it has become a frustration for him that the quality of a performance is measured purely by numbers.
“It’s annoying the way the game is viewed, because you can have a brilliant game and not get a goal or an assist and they say, ‘Oh, he didn’t do this or that,'” Grealish told ESPN in April. “Then you can score two goals at the far post and not play well at all and everyone says, ‘Oh, he’s brilliant.'”
Aside from the debate over his statistics, there remains the question of whether Guardiola is the right manager to make the most of Grealish’s maverick talent. At Villa, where he was undisputedly their best attacking player, Grealish could run wild wherever he wanted, popping into gaps and pushing defenders out of their comfort zone. City There is more structure. Guardiola He likes his attackers to sit in particular channels, and that means Grealish often finds himself in a lonely position on the left.
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In his final season at Villa, Grealish He averaged 40.9 carries, 60.8 touches and 6.5 touches in the penalty area. Even in his best season at City, 2022-23, his numbers dipped in each of those categories, and last season they fell even further. In 2023-24, his per-game averages were 29 carries, 39 touches and 2.1 touches in the penalty area.
Grealish He would be the first to say that performances should not be reduced to numbers alone, but he paints the picture of a player whose influence on matches has diminished, especially last season. Above all, he needs to stay fit, although there is considerable room for improvement.
Con Kevin De Bruyne, Jeremy Doku, Bernardo Silva, Savinho and Foden as competition for places in the first team, the role of Grealish in it City will not change in the short term. However, you have the opportunity to make better use of the opportunities that come your way. Julian Alvarez has gone to the Atletico Madrid to be a holder, and Oscar Bobb will be out injured for the foreseeable future, which means Grealish will once again be aiming to play more regularly. Thanks to a full pre-season, Grealish has been ahead of the players returning from international competition.
After a disappointing season in which he did not participate in the Eurocupdoubts have returned. This is not the first time that he hopes to prove his skeptics wrong.
