Former Manchester United midfielder Luke Chadwick has spoken exclusively to CaughtOffside to discuss Jack Grealish’s slightly underwhelming start to life at Manchester City.
The England international joined City from Aston Villa this summer in an eagerly-anticipated move, but we’re yet to see quite the same player since he linked up with Pep Guardiola at the Etihad Stadium.
Chadwick rates Grealish highly and still thinks he’s had a positive impact in this City team, though he also feels it’s up to the 26-year-old to work on his game to ensure he fits into the tactical demands of his manager.
Guardiola is known for being extremely demanding of his players, and CaughtOffside understands that Grealish hasn’t had the easiest time settling in to such a different set-up this season.
We’ve also reported on how a move to Man Utd was initially Grealish’s preference, and Chadwick offered some insight into why it’s not quite worked out for him at City so far, comparing it to his experiences of playing alongside Juan Sebastian Veron at Old Trafford.
“From the games I’ve seen he’s had a really positive effect on the team, particularly in that wide left position. He’s created chances, even if he’s not had the number of goals and assists that you’d expect,” Chadwick said.
“I think there was always going to be a transitional period for him. At Aston Villa the whole team was built around him in terms of scoring the important goals and setting up the important goals. It was always him making things happen from an offensive point of view. Going to Manchester City is a complete change of structure for him, they’re all hugely gifted players who can make something happen and who are expected to do the work out of possession.
“I think he’s going through that transition now, and I think the best thing about that is he’ll become a better player because of it – sometimes you’ve got to go through a bit of pain to get to where you want to get to, and Guardiola’s always demanding of his players. It’s going to take a bit more time for him to know what the manager wants from him in and out of possession, but once he gets there he can only benefit from it and it’ll benefit Manchester City and England moving forward.
“The name that springs to mind is Veron. He came in with a huge reputation. In training he was one of the best players I’ve ever seen, absolutely incredible, but didn’t play with the structure that was required at United at the time.
“He was a bit more off-the-cuff with where he’d go and receive the ball, trying to do different things, a bit more of a free spirit that didn’t fit into the structure. I think given more time he would’ve been a huge player for Man United but he chose a different path.
“He was a free spirit in terms of what he wanted to do. Obviously that squad was full of exceptional talent, but he was a little bit different in the way that he played and didn’t fit the structure at that time.
“Pep plays the game in a certain way and I don’t think he’d break that for anyone really. He had Lionel Messi, one of the best players that ever lived, and he’d do the work at Barcelona just like everyone else did.
“Grealish is a world class player, but so’s Phil Foden, so’s Bernardo Silva, so whoever does that job most effectively in that shape and structure, they’re the ones who are going to play, because that’s what wins games. It’s down to the player to a certain extent to fit into that structure, because he knew that was the structure going into that club.”
Grealish is a one way player, it’s his way or the highway and it is obviously he doesn’t care for Pep’s tactical approach’
which means bye bye, Jack.
And Citeh have enough of Peps type of player who are both better technical footballers and are wiling to follow the overall tactical plan used by him,
Soh ! bye Jack, go find a club who will let you play the game you are good at.