There have been times during Jack Grealish’s Manchester City career where it looked to some like the wrong player at the wrong club under the wrong manager, but this season and in 2023 particularly Britain’s most expensive player is starting to steal the show.
Since his Manchester derby goal at Old Trafford, Grealish has started every City league game to date. An impressive feat for any player that works under Pep Guardiola, who is known for his carousel of changes between games, particularly in forward positions.
This kind of run is even more important for a player like Grealish, who struggled for consistent game time for the majority of last season, particularly in high-stakes matches with Pep’s lack of trust in Grealish evident.
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With 12 Premier League games left to play, Grealish only has to feature in half of Manchester City’s games to match the amount of games he played in the last campaign. With his place in the squad as important as ever, it looks like he will significantly improve on last season's tally of minutes, solidifying his impressive change of fortunes.
Grealish has had to completely change his playing style since his move from Aston Villa as he has had to compromise being the player every attack flowed through to just one of many cogs in Manchester City’s devastating attack.
This has led to a decline in the driving forward runs and long shots we were used to at Villa, but in recent weeks it seems the England international has finally found the balance between not risking possession and being the mercurial threat we’ve been so used to seeing in the past.
Grealish has had an increasingly big impact on City’s biggest games this season, grabbing assists in City’s 1-0 wins over Arsenal in the FA Cup and Chelsea in the Premier League. The Englishmen also grabbed the goal that put the Premier League holders 2-1 up in their away victory to title challengers Arsenal, another example of Grealish’s ability to come up clutch when Pep needs it most.
The introduction of Erling Haaland to the Manchester City dressing room seems to be one of the catalysts for Jack Grealish’s change in fortunes. Man City played the majority of Grealish’s first season at the club without a designated striker, something that would have been completely alien to a creative midfielder like Grealish and required a complete change in responsibilities.
With the focal point of Haaland in the City side, it’s allowed Grealish to be at his best with the Norwegian always trying to create space for Grealish to play one of his trademark through-balls. Haaland’s constant runs have also been useful to drag away defenders to create space for Grealish and his fellow wide players at City, with Grealish’s goal at the Emirates an example of Haaland creating space for his teammates by occupying multiple opposition defenders.
With the sale of Raheem Sterling to Chelsea in the summer, there was a significant role to fill on the City wing which Grealish has made his own. Whilst Sterling’s departure paved the way for Grealish, his role in the side was certainly not handed to him with City still having options such as Mahrez, Foden, Bernardo Silva and Cole Palmer who can all do a job on the City flank.
This season was always going to be pivotal for Grealish’s City career with the attacking midfielder being cornered into a fight-or-flight scenario following his rocky first season. Grealish has certainly proved he is a fighter and has played his way into the starting line-up ahead of players who a year ago were comfortably ahead of him in the pecking order.
It’s still relatively early days for Jack Grealish at Manchester City, but currently all the signs point to the continued rise of the Englishmen as he looks to complete his return as one of the league's most influential players.
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