Interesting comparison, and does have undertones of how Cole made his name to how Mourinho wanted him to play. Cole really had to focus in Jose's teams and I felt he struggled with that as it went against the honed instincts he'd been praised for throughout his career and very likely through the youth ranks, too.
I don't think so because Grealish looks like a shadow of himself at City with no expression, no abandon and the things he is famed for being what is most frowned upon and almost sacrilegious thing to do for Pep, which is driving solo runs that may have you dispossessed 'needlessly' at points where you could have passed to open teammates.
That is a big issue with Manchester City's recruitment. To be fair to Jack Grealish, Mahrez would have been seen as the same sort of player when he was signed from Leicester. In fact, I remember people saying Mahrez was a counter attacking player and won't fit into Pep Guardiola's team. I think Grealish will eventually replace Kevin De Bruyne in the long term.
I think Mahrez is the best example of this. It still boggles me that he plays for City, considering how his playing style doesn't suit Pep's system at all... yet he's their key player who consistently performs in the biggest games, getting key goals & assists. Somehow Pep had managed to get him to play his way without sacrificing too much of Mahrez's free-flowing individuality.
Those simple stats + watching his games is more than enough to conclude that Grealish has been a massive disappointment.
If that happens, and was the vision Pep had all along then I'd say that's exceptional, should it work out. It'd certainly explain the growing pains and rigour of this season.
He had a great period under Jose, but he couldn't keep it up and he started to fall out of favour for things inherent in his game, but Chelsea fans can give the full literal and figurative breakdown of that relationship.
I don't think anyone will dispute he's been a disappointment. However, having a look beyond goals and assists at some underlying stats can help figure out what might be in stock for him next season (I think he'll definitely improve, but never become a true cog in the Pep machine).
Because assist rely on other players to score. You can lay it on a plate only for your striker to miss an open goal tap in. Or you can make a 3 yard sideways pass 40 yards from goal to a teammate that blasts a thunderbastard in the top corner from 35 yards out. One is an instance of a creative player creating for his team. The other is a player scoring a worldie. Yet the creative player gets the credit for the latter instead of the former
I’m not saying that Pep doesn’t want creativity, but there’s a huge difference between Foden/De Bruyne and Mahrez/Grealish.
Pep's City is kinda built to take advantage of players like Mahrez/Graelish "flying solo". Graelish just hasn't been good/effective enough to beat Foden, Gabriel J or Sterling - or indeed Mahrez, for the starting job...
The point of a creative player is creating chances. Whether those get converted into goals is out of his hands. Hence why a stat that tracks the quality of the chances created is a better indicator of a player's creativity than one that simply tracks the last pass given before a goal
Most people use them to discuss players without watching them. That's why and how they've ruined football discussions.
So it has nothing to do with the stats, it's just the morons throwing them about.
Well replace stats with guns and you see how that logic doesn't work
That's what I meant in all seriousness. Stats are harmless but these x stats annoy me in how they're used by many who don't get them
Even though there are other stats which tells a better story, wouldn’t go as far as to say assist is a rubbish stat. One could fluke a few assists once a while, but not a whole lot. To create certain amount of assists throughout a period, you still need to be creative enough, you can’t just get it all done by pure luck.
Yeah, i mean, obviously hyperbole
