Thierry Henry may be one of the best players Pep Guardiola ever coached in his illustrious career.
Pep Guardiola has worked with the best of the best from Lionel Messi to Erling Haaland, but Thierry Henry is up there with those all-time greats.
The Frenchman won absolutely everything there was to win at the highest level, and, these days, Henry is a top-class pundit and analyst.
Speaking to The Independent, Henry has been discussing some of the big changes he’s noticed in football in recent years, and he says that the game is way too scripted and over-coached at the moment.
Henry used Jack Grealish as an example when discussing this change, claiming that the winger isn’t the same player he was at Aston Villa, noting that he’s now much more cautious on the ball than he ever was at Villa.
The change Thierry Henry has noticed in Jack Grealish
Henry spoke about Grealish and how he has changed due to the way he is coached.
The Arsenal legend says that Grealish is now much more risk-averse due to the fact Pep Guardiola is so cautious about being caught in transition.
“I’ve said it so many times, the game is so controlled by everything, by stats, by coaches. I mean, myself, I’m a coach. I say, ‘don’t do this, don’t do that’. The game is so scripted and schematised at times, that you kind of forget to let players play,” Henry said.
“Take one of the best, Jack Grealish. He won the treble playing a certain way. It wasn’t the same at Villa. Villa’s Grealish was dribbling past people, shooting sometimes. At Man City, he’s well aware that he can’t lose the ball too early or too quick, because they’re going to be in transition. Pep doesn’t like transition. He likes to possess the ball, retain it there.”
How Jack Grealish’s stats have changed since Aston Villa move
Henry isn’t the first person to point out this change with Grealish.
Indeed, Rio Ferdinand said last year that Grealish has changed since joining City, while Stewart Robson says Grealish has got worse since joining Pep Guardiola’s side.
Meanwhile, there have been calls for Grealish to change position recently.
Whether Grealish is better now than he was at Aston Villa is up for debate, but the stats show that he has certainly changed as a player.
| Jack Grealish this season | Jack Grealish final season at Aston Villa | |
| 0 | Goals | 6 |
| 1 | Assists | 10 |
| 0.8 | Dribbles per game | 2.5 |
| 91% | Pass success rate | 83% |
| 1.4 | Key passes per game | 3.1 |
| 0.8 | Unsuccessful touches per game | 1.5 |
| 0.5 | Times dispossessed per game | 2.1 |
Grealish is scoring fewer goals and creating fewer assists, while his dribbling stats are way down, but, at the same time, he’s giving the ball away less and connecting with more of his passes.
The 29-year-old is a much more functional player now than he once was, and it’s up for debate whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
On one hand, Grealish isn’t as exciting to watch these days, but, on the other hand he’s got three Premier League winners’ medals to show for it as well as a Champions League title too.
Grealish has become more functional as a player, but, sometimes, that’s what needs to happen for a team to be successful – look at Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea as another example, Joe Cole went through a very similar metamorphosis at Stamford Bridge, becoming a more ‘boring’ player, but plenty of silverware followed.
Henry does have a point about how Grealish has changed, but it’s not necessarily a negative.
