Sometimes you are only as good as the players around you allow you to be, and at Manchester City there are plenty of good players.
So for Jack Grealish, the pressure of performing for his side usually boils down to a personal one. Can he justify that huge fee? Can he finally convince Pep Guardiola?
All that is more of an overall concept though, and not as much to do with what happens on the pitch on any given day or in decisive moments in tight matches. There's always someone else to make that difference if Grealish doesn't.
For James Maddison though, that difference is everything.
The Leicester No.10 is the man who has to make his side tick. If he isn't being creative then there is a very real chance that the Foxes aren't being either.
Most things that Brendan Rodgers' side do go through him, if they are being performed at a slow enough pace that is.
If it is quicker then it is likely that Harvey Barnes will be Rodgers' main man, with the quicksilver left-sided winger getting on the ball and geeing up the King Power Stadium crowd on the odd occasion the hosts were able to lay a glove on Manchester City in the first half.
That wasn't very often though.
The visitors may have been missing Erling Haaland - news that made Brendan Rodgers "slide on his knees" pre-match, apparently - but while that focal point at the head of the attack would likely have made a difference when it comes to finishing chances, it didn't really register as City dominated the ball.
Grealish had a part to play in that, but it was only a small one.
Indeed, Guardiola, City fans and anyone watching with an England World Cup head on would like to see Grealish dictating the play more often in a City side, or indeed at all.
But he barely registered in a first half of fitful touches, with one hopeful penalty appeal all he really did.
Maddison, meanwhile, was cutting a frustrated figure because of the quality he was up against.
Leicester barely managed a kick as their visitors from Manchester dominated, and while Grealish might not have looked like contributing to the game's decisive moment himself, he was putting in enough of a team shift to suggest that he might well have a say in it.
And then it happened.
Early in the second half the former Aston Villa man sprang forward and burst through the centre of the Leicester midfield, with the recently arrived Nampalys Mendy tripping him up.
Enter Kevin De Bruyne, the man with the quality to decide any game and with the abilities to outshine Maddison, Grealish and pretty much everyone else for that matter.
The Belgian cracked his free-kick into the net via a post, settling the game and ensuring that Grealish could say that he contributed to City's three points in a tangible way.
Maddison, a superb free-kick taker himself, could only look on and regret the fact that he wasn't given the platform upon which to demonstrate his talents.
Grealish's teammate certainly did, leaving the two No.10s in the shade.
