Jack Grealish is he about to break out?

Jack Grealish, the £100 million man who divides City fans opinion with his on field performances for Manchester City, and is roundly booed and ridiculed by opposition fans due to the price tag.

The Birmingham born man is a polarising figure as seen by the criticism from pundits across the game. Post the World Cup is Jack about to finally justify the price tag and show the best of himself in Manchester City colours?

Jack Grealish time at Manchester City can be described as frustrating from a City supporters point of view over the first season and half. The stats for Grealish during his time at Manchester City aren’t anything special or jump out at you with a total of one goal and two assists so far this season in 18 appearances & 6 goals and 4 assists in 39 appearances last season.

The stats don’t tell the full story of Jack’s time with City as he is often the player who lays the ball off before the assist to set up a goal or a chance at the very least, not exactly what you’d expect from a £100 million player but more on the price tag later on.

When Jack Grealish is in full flow during his time at City we see Jack with a driving run with the ball then played from Grealish to De Bruyne, Gundogan, Bernardo etc to set up a goal or a chance at the very least.

The key for Jack to maximise this trait as it’s something he’s exceptional at, and play to his strengths in the framework of the team. To often for me we see him going backwards and drawing a foul. There are times when he looks every bit the £100 million man going at opponents, and others where he seems to drift out of the game, deferring to his team mates once to often, and while doing that at times it sucks the momentum out of City attacks.

Jack has all the tools and talent to succeed at Manchester City. I’d prefer to see him driving forward and taking on the opponent. I feel it’s something we lack since the departure of Raheem Sterling to Chelsea. Mahrez does this at times, same with Phil Foden, now it’s time Jack did more of it.

I also think if we had proper overlapping left back it’d bring more out of Grealish, but also tactically we don’t play with overlapping full backs often.

It seems more often then not Grealish is deployed against teams who like to press like Leeds. Where one of his strengths in keeping possession becomes vital in our build up play, and our game as a whole. It’s a role Grealish plays well, but with a bit more directness and hunger he could go to the next level.

Speaking of hunger the most pleasing part I saw against Leeds was Jack’s pressing that directly contributed to the second goal he laid on a plate for Haaland. Was something we haven’t seen a lot from Grealish, his reaction to that passage of play spoke volumes to. I hope it’s a welcome addition to his game from the Leeds game onwards.

In his most recent games the Grealish performance against Chelsea in the Carabao Cup pre the World Cup was one of his better ones during his time at Manchester City. He was man of the match in that game from a person assessment point of view.

He followed it up against Leeds in his next appearance with a sub par first half, but a fantastic second half setting up two goals for Haaland at Elland Road. In the first half, Jack was getting into the right positions, but lacked either the killer instinct in front of goal or played the wrong ball. The second half he got the distribution part of his game right and looked more like the Jack we saw during his time at Aston Villa.

Also the time has come for Jack Grealish to start putting his chances away. He missed two golden opportunities to score against Leeds, a goal or two would do Jack the world of good going forward this season.

The price tag is something often mentioned with the criticism of Grealish’s performances at Manchester City. Something I don’t overly agree with as there was a release clause in Jack’s Aston Villa contract, and Manchester City paid that and the move was complete. Jack had no control over that factor, though I do get where the criticism comes from it’s still not something I agree with.

For the rest of the season if we get the Grealish that we saw against Chelsea, and the second half against Leeds he will become a vital cog in Pep Guardiola’s machine. The talent is there with Jack, and I sense that he’s beginning to feel he belongs at Manchester City alongside Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and co.

We often hear it takes time to adjust to  Pep Guardiola’s demands and tactics for new signings, especially for midfielders. The bedding in time for Grealish has well and truly past.

It’s now Jack’s time to make the left wing his own and silence the critics. He is more then capable and I’m hoping Jack proves me right and he becomes a key player at the Etihad for the rest of this season and beyond, and silence the critics and pundits who wait for every opportunity to pile onto Jack Grealish.