I screamed because this is not the Jack Grealish we saw at Aston Villa
Arsenal and France great Thierry Henry let out a cry of frustration while watching the Manchester derby at home on Sunday, because Jack Grealish's decision making late in the game led him to the conclusion that the playmaker isn't currently showing signs of the off-the-cuff figure he was during his days playing for Aston Villa.
Grealish left his boyhood club in 2021 for £100m and has won pretty much all there is to win in club football at City, including three Premier League titles, the Champions League and the FA Cup, but his own personal form has comparatively struggled; he has scored just three goals for City since the beginning of LAST season and the most recent of those was exactly a year ago, albeit injuries have disrupted momentum.
The 29-year-old was often a joy to watch in a free role for Villa, operating on the left but allowed to drift inside with the ball and the dynamic of being Villa's captain and talisman suited his profile, but at City Grealish has joined a pool of stars and has a more regimented role in the team under Pep Guardiola.
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Introduced from the bench with City leading city rivals United 1-0 late on, Grealish picked the ball up on the left and might've taken his man on - instead, he chose to retain the ball before sending it backwards. United would eventually claim a dramatic late win with two goals in the closing minutes and Henry, analysing Grealish's decision making, noted the difference in individual performance.
"I was at home and I screamed, because that is not the Jack Grealish I saw at Villa, or the Grealish I saw arriving at Man City," Henry told Sky Sports. "Regardless of the time, regardless of what it is, regardless of where you are...when the ball comes to you here, and I see Bruno Fernandes coming, and maybe Gundogan making a run, all I'm trying to do in that moment is you take the ball and you square him.
"You see what happens. I don't know if you're going to dribble past him...you don't just go the other way. You want to stay here, you want to possess the ball. It's minute 87, why are you going back there? You want them in your half, you want to stay here - especially you [Grealish] and what you used to do.
"As a coach sometimes, the coaches do the thinking for the players a bit too much nowadays, but I don't care. At that moment, you're on the ball. You decide. You play that moment. I'm sure you've [co-pundit Jamie Carragher] been in situations where [former Liverpool boss Rafa] Benitez told you to do something and you've been like 'I'm not doing this now'.
"You need to feel the game. You cannot always turn and go 'my coach told me'. No. They go back. Why? They go back again and again. Man United will now push and why are you inviting them to come here when you were in a one-v-one situation?"
