Good posts, Guardiola really is teaching people about football if the takeaways here are that Grealish is a vital piece for City keeping the ball and slowing down the game and getting their team into position and also it's horrible to watch one of the most exciting players in the Premiership become a pretty damn boring one.
I think he finally got a bit angry and started wandering inside a bit more in the 2nd half to try to create something.
Effective or not, he’s awfully boring to watch.
Also, did it have to be a £100m player doing this job? Is his ball retention really that elite that you couldn’t achieve the same with another player given the same tactical instructions?
This is from 2019, when he was still at Villa:
He has the ability to drive forward from almost any position and create whilst on said run. There aren't many in world football who do that. It basically means he creates fear and disruption for the opposition from the moment he has the ball because he's forcing proactivity otherwise, he'll go straight into the box, where the likelihood of a penalty being conceded is high.
He also allows a lot of off the ball runs to be made because he retains well and finds passes whilst on the move - put him in a side with smart, pacey runners, and there's potential for chaos.
There's a derth of this kind of player, especially so at clubs outside of the elite - it won't be long before the top clubs line Grealish up. Even in his raw state, he's a viable asset sides with better squads than Villa will be happy to utilise.
I don't think he'll do the generic 1,2 big club leap - think it'll be Villa then straight to a big hitter. Fee will determine the suitors.
I think it's been clear what he offers and why it's invaluable for a long time - what people expected with the £100m was compound interest on the more flamboyant side of his play; to become a more all-encompassing player that screams £100m+, but what has actually happened is he's become a refined specialist who is in the team specifically to do 'his thing' and the other bits added, like his pressing and work-rate being bonuses. But it's abundantly clear he's an ace up the sleeve who Guardiola doesn't particularly need for lower level games or the more unimportant portion of the season, but come run-in, when the big games and more typically, big teams feature rather routinely (whittling in the CL as well as the big pressure domestic cup games and big league games), you'll see Grealish rolled out as one of the key names because of what he does and how consistently he can do it.
Can't claim to have heavily scoured the leagues to be certain there any out there who rival him for what he does, but that specialist toolset he has is, and always was, rare and it's not in being able to do it once or twice, but
all the time that it becomes a viable and workable asset you can build off of tactically. Grealish guarantees ball progression, fouls and yellow cards; he stymies games and can really take the pace out of them as and when your team needs him to. He is not a flashy dribbler, but he's a dead certainty to get the ball from A to B if he isn't fouled en route. I don't know how many other players in the league you can assert that for and a lot of it comes from his body strength and balance - there might be others as sure-footed as him, but how many can withstand shoulder-to-shoulder challenges and upper body strength engagements whilst trudging along to their intended destination? Most wingers, you can't catch because they are faster and more agile, but if you can get touch-tight, they simply don't have the strength or mass to withstand the contact of a heavier or stronger player; Grealish moves into a much more unique subset at this juncture and you're talking about an amount of players you can count on your hands over the last few years, rather than the abundance of talented wingers who can dribble for days, but are as strong, relatively, as a wet paper towel once gotten a hold of.
I note someone in one of these Grealish threads got absolutely torn to bits for comparing him to Ronaldinho, and in terms of raw talent, that's harsh but justified, but one trait they share is that body strength and balance, as 'dinho was the exact same, for all his skill and talent, he was an absolute powerhouse in physical tussles who it was a nightmare to go body to body with before anything to do with skill was factored. Zidane had that trait, so too, the legendary Moussa Dembele. It really doesn't come around often, and after Grealish, I would be curious to know who else has that who is active (I honestly don't know), so when you say 'does it take £100m to acquire'
@Mike Smalling, it very probably does because it's dribbling combined with absurd amounts of body strength, which is the combination that is gold dust. All 4 of those players guaranteed elite ball carriage and that's an asset worth paying a fortune for.
It's ironic people thought Pep was falling out of love with Grealish by not playing him; it's more like this is the asset he wants wrapped in cotton wool and rolled out at the most important time of the season and one of the players he doesn't need or wish to risk in smaller games.
If England didn't have such a rubbish coach at the helm, they'd be looking to use him in the exact same way at international level.