Pundit Stewart Downing has claimed that Manchester City winger Jack Grealish needs to improve his form.
The 28-year-old could be in line to make his latest appearance for the Citizens as Pep Guardiola’s side welcome Brighton & Hove Albion to the Etihad Stadium for their latest Premier League match following the recent international break.
With that in mind, one pundit and former Premier League player has shared his thoughts on one particular City figure and what he needs to be doing throughout the remainder of the campaign.
Downing urges Grealish to improve City form
Speaking in a recent episode of the BBC’s Football Daily podcast, Downing had this to say on the matter.
He said: “Some players, they need to get back to form. The likes of Grealish and them who have had a tremendous season last year and they’ve had a really good summer. They need to start getting back into focus now and getting their performance levels back to where they were last season.”
This season has seen the Englishman feature in four Premier League games for City, starting two of them, the latest of which came back in August against Sheffield United.
After being an unused substitute for the Manchester club’s previous league game against Arsenal, the winger then went on to provide the assist for England’s 1-0 friendly win over Australia during the recent international break.
Looking back to last season, Grealish ended up playing a big role in City’s treble-winning efforts, particularly in the Champions League as he completed the full 90 minutes in the club’s quarter-final clashes against Bayern Munich, their semi-final games against Real Madrid and the final against Inter Milan in the final.
With that in mind, it’s easy to see why Downing thinks the winger needs to start giving Guardiola reasons to keep him in the starting XI as he was last season.
Moving forward, if the City boss does give Grealish a place in the starting XI this afternoon against Brighton, the pressure will be on the winger to make sure he delivers.
