After Manchester City were defeated 1-0 by Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup, Pep Guardiola lauded Jack Grealish.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the clash, the Catalan tactician gave his two cents on the Englishman’s performance on Wednesday night.
Despite Jack Grealish not impressing against Newcastle United, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola believes the polar opposite.
Pep Guardiola raves about ‘perfect’ Jack Grealish after Manchester City lose to Newcastle
Branded as ‘phenomenal’ by Stephen Clemence, the 27-year-old returned from injury to start for the treble-winners at St. James’ Park.
However, the two-time Premier League winner struggled to get the better out of Tino Livramento in what was a disappointing outing from him.
But when Pep Guardiola was questioned about how he felt Jack Grealish performed for Manchester City against Newcastle, he said, “He’s good, first 90 minutes. Still needs more time but it’s normal.”
“He didn’t do pre-season and has been injured for a while so but that’s why, [he] was perfect for 90 minutes.”
Jack Grealish is judged incorrectly by the masses in sky blue
First things first, Pep Guardiola is right in emphasising that considering Manchester City attacker Jack Grealish has just returned from injury, he was solid, if not spectacular against Newcastle.
However, the England international’s performance frustrated many as he struggled to have much of an impact on the night.
The problem is, however that the masses view Grealish as a touchline winger when in truth he is anything but that.
At Aston Villa, Jack Grealish was given the license to roam anywhere and everywhere on the pitch and run the show with his exceptional ball-carrying ability.
That is not the case at City as Guardiola’s positional system only allows De Bruyne, who is the club’s standout player to have close to that level of freedom on the pitch.
As a result, Jack Grealish is parked on to the left wing, where he does not thrive in terms of beating his man as he is an elite ball-carrier and not as a 1v1 threat.
Even at Villa, Grealish had an overlapping left-back in Targett to link up with, which is not the case at the Etihad Stadium, which is why his displays are often judged incorrectly and extremely harshly by far too many fans and pundits alike.
