Throwback Thursday: The season that convinced Man City to spend big on Grealish

 

Jack Grealish has been receiving plenty of praise in recent weeks for the way he has now settled into the Manchester City team after a transitional first season under Pep Guardiola, recently scoring and assisting in City’s 4-1 win over Liverpool last weekend.  

 

For Throwback Thursday this week, we look closer at his final season for Aston Villa, which was arguably the one that convinced the Cityzens that Jack is very much the Greal Deal. 

 

By the 2020/21 season, Grealish was a known entity in the Premier League. Big clubs were linked with his signature as he made his senior debut for England, and he was very much the main man at Villa Park. But it was during that season in which the Premier League's bigger teams were starting to take note of his talent as he helped to guide Aston Villa to a mid-table finish in their second season back in the top-flight. 

 

A point on the last day of the 2019/20 season was enough for Dean Smith’s side to avoid relegation having been promoted the previous season via the playoffs. Many believed 2020/21 would be another struggle for Villa, but they proved the doubters wrong, and none more so than Grealish. 

 

Aston Villa finished 11th that season on 55 points, a big leap from 2019/20. They were busy that summer and brought a number of players who would prove vital in rising up the table, including Emiliano Martinez, Ollie Watkins and Matty Cash, it can’t be taken away just how important Grealish proved to be for his boyhood club. 

 

Despite the fact Villa didn’t finish in the top half of the table, Grealish ended the season as the Premier League’s third highest rated player (7.56), behind only title winner Kevin De Bruyne (7.65) and top scorer and top assister Harry Kane (7.79), emphasising his importance. Much of that was down to his 16 goal contributions, his best in a league season, despite missing 12 matches owing to a shinbone injury. This included 10 assists, which only three other players could better that campaign. 

 

We have seen during Grealish’s time at City the lack of freedom he has within Guardiola’s system and when you look at some of the numbers he was producing in his final season at Villa, it is a fair assumption to make. 

 

 

In terms of chance creation, he registered 81 key passes, the third highest in the league, working out to one every 27 minutes, which only Kevin De Bruyne (every 25 minutes) could better. In terms of key passes per 90, Grealish (3.0) was top in 2020/21, while for big chance creation; he created 14, which was third behind Bruno Fernandes (20) and De Bruyne (19). It was no wonder, then, that with the added depth in quality to the Villa squad that summer, this helped to guide the Midlands based club up the table, with Grealish doing so much to make things happen in the attacking third. This was noted in that the Grealish to Watkins (4) assist-to-goalscorer combination was bettered by only three other combinations in the league. 

 

By comparison, since he joined City, he has recorded only 11 more key passes (92) in 22 more appearances (48). 

 

Though he wasn’t Villa’s main outlet for goals having only found the net on six occasions, with Watkins (14), Anwar El Ghazi (10) and Bertrand Traore (7) scoring more among the squad, he did carry a threat of his own up against defenders. 168 touches in the opposition box was the 11th highest in the league, but in terms of per game (6.5), he jumps to fifth, an impressive return when cutting in from the left rather than playing as the centre forward. Much of this was due to the fact he liked the ball at his feet, and the freedom to run at defenders, conveyed by his average of 2.5 dribbles per game, a sum only three other players in the league could better, while impressively still; 64.4% of his dribbles were successful. 

 

Individually some of Grealish’s performances that season were top class, but none more so than in Villa’s superb 7-2 win over Liverpool where he, along with Watkins, recorded a perfect WhoScored 10 rating. Grealish contributed to five of the seven goals, scoring twice and registering three assists, from a total of five key passes  the most in the match. Additionally, only one of his three shots didn’t hit the target, while he also registered seven touches in the opposition box. He helped his team defensively, too, with no player making more successful tackles (3) than Grealish, while he won possession in the attacking third (3) the most times of any player in that victory. 

 

The influence he had that season and the height of his impact was there for all the top clubs to see, and it was no wonder it took a hefty price for Villa to budge. 

 

Grealish is slowly adopting to a new system and way of playing under Guardiola, and has shown signs in recent weeks of the player he once was in that 2020/21 season. He may not get that same freedom to be the main man at the Etihad as he did at Villa Park, but Manchester City still have a world class player on their hands, best evidenced in his final campaign at Villa.

Throwback Thursday: The season that convinced Man City to spend big on Grealish