Paul Merson has backed Jack Grealish to be named as the Player of the Season at the end of the upcoming Premier League campaign.
The winger ended his second season at the Manchester club by playing a prominent role in their treble-winning campaign.
Looking ahead to the upcoming season, one pundit has already backed the Englishman to go from strength to strength and put himself above any other player in the division.
Merson backs Grealish to be Player of the Season
In a recent column for Sportskeeda, Merson had this to say when predicting who he thinks will win the Player of the Season Award.
He said: “You’ve got to go with someone who’s going to win the Premier League title to win the Player of the Season award, and I’m going to back Jack Grealish to clinch it.
“With his performances last season, I believe he’s paid back his transfer fee already. Grealish does a lot of running for Man City, and he works his socks off for the team. He closes down and tracks back, and he does his fair share.
“I don’t believe in the stats and I find it strange when people read into his numbers. It takes everyone at least a year to get used to the way they play at Manchester City.
“Grealish plays every week not just because of what he does going forward – he tracks back as well. As soon as Joao Cancelo left, he became a completely different player. Jack Grealish has taken his time, and he’s now playing at his best for Pep Guardiola.”
After scoring three goals and providing three assists in his first Premier League campaign at City, the 27-year-old then went on to score five goals and deliver seven assists in the league last season.
Taking a deeper look at it, the England international made more goal-creating actions (20 vs 6) last season compared to his debut campaign, as well as having a higher rate of goals per shot on target (0.33 vs 0.16).
This highlights his improvement in terms of being more effective in front of goal, which, if he’s able to develop even more throughout his next campaign, he’ll definitely be in with a shout of being named as the Player of the Season.
Having also racked up a higher combined total of tackles and interceptions (32 vs 26) last season compared to the 2021/22 league campaign as well as making more recoveries (110 vs 63), this backs up Merson’s point about Grealish putting the effort in defensively as well as being more effective in an attacking sense.
