The RJW63 Official Jack Grealish Appreciation Thread

[Tomaszk]

4 hours ago, Cjay said:

Based on what?

Sorry I'm not trying to be deliberately difficult.

But statements like the one in bold.

What has he done that makes him "so good"? 

Watching him play, not reading stats. He's farcically good. 

We got to the playoff final solely because of him. He almost scored a preposterous goal carrying it from the half-way line during that final. We almost got promoted because of one player.

I'd pay to watch him in 5-a-side instead of watch this current Aston Villa side without him.

[KHV]

14 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

Watching him play, not reading stats. He's farcically good. 

We got to the playoff final solely because of him. He almost scored a preposterous goal carrying it from the half-way line during that final. We almost got promoted because of one player.

I'd pay to watch him in 5-a-side instead of watch this current Aston Villa side without him.

I'd actually drop him right now

[Czechlad]

Dropping Grealish isn't the answer. We need to get his confidence back up. Let him play further up the field, and the midfield around him has to help. Adomah and Elmo on the wings aren't very attacking, and McGinn doesn't join the attack. Often Grealish gets the ball on only has one option in front of him. 

[villa4europe]

we are at home to rotherham, it would be madness to drop him, stick hourhane and mcginn in with him or even thor

[jackbauer24]

2 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

Watching him play, not reading stats. He's farcically good. 

We got to the playoff final solely because of him. He almost scored a preposterous goal carrying it from the half-way line during that final. We almost got promoted because of one player.

I'd pay to watch him in 5-a-side instead of watch this current Aston Villa side without him.

I think this is my issue with him. He's still an 'almost' player. There's clearly some brilliant skill in there but 95% of the time it's a case of 'that was almost effective'...

He still hasn't shown any real consistsncy, he doesn't go on scoring sprees, his assists record is pretty average but he does some amazing things sporadically that excite the crowd or win us a vital free kick. But is it enough? Surely by now he should be dominating games at this level more often than not. I still think anything over £25m would have been incredible for someone who really hasn't shown he is capable of prolonged periods of outstanding form - even more so at this level. And this season, he's arguably our third most effective midfielder.

I always hope I'm wrong but I'm just getting a little bored of hearing this is 'his year'...

[Cjay]

3 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

Watching him play, not reading stats. He's farcically good. 

We got to the playoff final solely because of him. He almost scored a preposterous goal carrying it from the half-way line during that final. We almost got promoted because of one player.

I'd pay to watch him in 5-a-side instead of watch this current Aston Villa side without him.

But he just isnt though is he.

He hasnt shown consistency ever, he hasnt inspired you to anything meaningful , he may do some really exciting things, but he isnt "farcically good".

He isnt even at the moment proven Championship quality, to inconsistent to say that, never mind anything else. 

I read this stuff in the summer, found it ludicrous, we all do it, greatly exaggerate our players, especially academy kids. 

Grealish at best atm is a good Championship player, nothing more, nothing less, until he shows he can dominate games, like Jota for Wolves, like Taarabt did for QPR, like Maddison for Norwich even, its all just speculation and exaggeration imo. 

If Jack Grealish wasnt a Villa kid this wouldnt be happening. 

[hooter]

19 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Grealish is not as good as Saiz. Im amazed you’ve managed to keep hold of him. Way too good for this league.

Saiz is a strange one. First off to declare my hand, I love the guy, from the moment he turned up he has days when he does stuff no Leeds player for 15 years has been capable of. In full flow he looks way better than Championship standard, and that has been the case this season so far, and as early last season.

We did get an enquiry in the summer from Valencia, but I think he fancied the idea of playing for Bielsa, and Bielsa does seem to have got him focussed, but of course time will tell.

The back story to Saiz might be a cautionary tale for Grealish as it happens. As a kid Saiz was playing for the B teams of large Spanish clubs (including Real and Athletico Madrid), as is their way, and his career was a litany of great deeds, followed by night club incidents and disciplinary issues.

Eventually he settled down at Huesca, seemed to play for their manager, and we took a punt.

If you are familiar with racehorses you'll know what Timeform's "squiggle" represents, a deeply suspect temperament, and last season we saw it, culminating in the spit at Newport which saw him rightly get a 6 match ban, he was never the same player afterwards.

Has Bielsa changed him ? We'll see. If so, and if as a result he maintains his current form, then the only way he'll be at Leeds next season is if we are promoted.

I'm enjoying him now and we'll see where we go, he's glorious at the moment.

Pablo is different, a very clever player, and we miss him, but he was never going to play 46 games in a season, his hamstrings do go once a season it seems. Better now than March I guess.

From what I've seen of Grealish he should play further forward or you are wasting his ability to go past a man, but either way I thought £25 mill was a big price, it'll be interesting to see how he plays out, my gut feel is if he leaves Villa now it'll be for less than that.

Edited September 17, 2018 by hooter

[Tomaszk]

4 hours ago, Cjay said:

But he just isnt though is he...

If Jack Grealish wasnt a Villa kid this wouldnt be happening. 

Yes he is.

He's wasting his career at Villa with our current club situation. Which is good for me as I get to see him play.

He's probably looking at Maddison on the cusp of the England squad and even Leeds suddenly playing football and wondering if he's made the right decision to stay here.

[Keyblade]

If this thread is any indication, it seems Jack might actually have to leave to one of the big clubs to prove himself so his ability is recognized. 

I just hope we improve to a level where he doesn't have to do that. He's not going to shine or progress in this dour team. We're holding him back at this point. Really hope we get a new manager soon if only to be able to enjoy the privilege of watching him play for us.

[AvfcRigo82]

He needs to be allowed a free roaming role behind the front 2 to pull the strings, make things happen and run at defences getting us vital free kicks on occasions.

This has not been happening of late as he is stuck further back in midfield.

[KenjiOgiwara]

I think he's superb. Unfortunately we play Bruceball with Bruce signings, thus we automatically don't utilize what Grealish is good at. It reminds me a bit when we signed JPA. You could basically see how he was on a totally different planet in regards to expecting offball movement, reading plays and having a general footballing intelligence. Then people starting criticising him pretty unfairly cause the rest of the squad were utterly inept and not on the same wavelength as JPA. The same stuff would probably have happened to Merson as well, but at the point in time we actually had a decent football team. 

[DaveAV1]

21 minutes ago, KenjiOgiwara said:

I think he's superb. Unfortunately we play Bruceball with Bruce signings, thus we automatically don't utilize what Grealish is good at. It reminds me a bit when we signed JPA. You could basically see how he was on a totally different planet in regards to expecting offball movement, reading plays and having a general footballing intelligence. Then people starting criticising him pretty unfairly cause the rest of the squad were utterly inept and not on the same wavelength as JPA. The same stuff would probably have happened to Merson as well, but at the point in time we actually had a decent football team. 

I think that’s absolutely right. Under the current manager it’s hard to assess players properly, especially attacking ones. My worry is that our season fizzles out, Jack says he wants to move and under a decent manager realises all the potential he often shows, but doesn’t consistently reach. It’s not just the here and now that is being damaged under Steve Bruce, it’s the future as well. 

[OutByEaster?]

It's really difficult to find players to compare Grealish too - he's not an Iniesta style midfield metronome dominating through rhythm and short passing, he's not a Bale-type athlete, he's not a winger in any real sense. 

I find that the only players I think remind me of him, or that he reminds me of tend to sound ridiculous as comparisons. There's something very rare in the way he plays the game, the style of his movement. I think Grealish is  a fabulous player - but he's not a patch on the only player I've seen that I ever really think he reminds me of, a fella called Johan something or other.

 

[Stevo985]

13 hours ago, Cjay said:

But he just isnt though is he.

He hasnt shown consistency ever, he hasnt inspired you to anything meaningful , he may do some really exciting things, but he isnt "farcically good".

He isnt even at the moment proven Championship quality, to inconsistent to say that, never mind anything else. 

I read this stuff in the summer, found it ludicrous, we all do it, greatly exaggerate our players, especially academy kids. 

Grealish at best atm is a good Championship player, nothing more, nothing less, until he shows he can dominate games, like Jota for Wolves, like Taarabt did for QPR, like Maddison for Norwich even, its all just speculation and exaggeration imo. 

If Jack Grealish wasnt a Villa kid this wouldnt be happening. 

Ah I guess you're right then mate.

Silly us! We must all be wrong watching him week in week out.

He's just "good".

Are there any other players we're wrong about? I'd like to know so we don't get too excited. 

[StefanAVFC]

12 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

It's really difficult to find players to compare Grealish too - he's not an Iniesta style midfield metronome dominating through rhythm and short passing, he's not a Bale-type athlete, he's not a winger in any real sense. 

I find that the only players I think remind me of him, or that he reminds me of tend to sound ridiculous as comparisons. There's something very rare in the way he plays the game, the style of his movement. I think Grealish is  a fabulous player - but he's not a patch on the only player I've seen that I ever really think he reminds me of, a fella called Johan something or other.

 

I think the Modric comparison was good by @Stevo985. But he shouldn't be there. He needs to be further up the pitch and have some defensive responsibility taken away from him.

[villaglint]

5 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

I think the Modric comparison was good by @Stevo985. But he shouldn't be there. He needs to be further up the pitch and have some defensive responsibility taken away from him.

I actually disagree. I've said many times that as counter intuitive as it sounds he is more effective the deeper he plays. 

He's good at getting on the ball and helping us to dominate games. He's really good at beating his man in midfield and creating an overlap for the wingers. 

He's surprisingly not that great at scoring and providing assists. 

We have tried several times over the years to play him further up the pitch which makes sense because he's the most talented player we have. But every one of his best games for us has come when playing as a box to box midfielder in a three. 

[villa4europe]

so are we back to discussing is he actually any good?

 FFS

he's unbelievably good, the argument over how deep you play him depends on who you then put ahead of him, the answer at the moment is no one, we leave a 20m gap with no one there, so yes he's too deep, you add to that kodjia at times is so static, jacks best role is to beat someone in the middle, draw someone else in and then spread it wide for the winger to then usually get the assist, he doesnt have that luxury anymore with how deep he is and then elmo playing wide / adomah's form, it might come with bolasie and el ghazi, look at what snodgrass gave him as an option last year and just doesnt have that right now

if we were a good well managed team full of attacking movement and purpose jack would tear this league up, in reality we're not and people get pissed off that he cant carry us on his back all by himself, he's not going to

[Herman22]

17 hours ago, Czechlad said:

Dropping Grealish isn't the answer. We need to get his confidence back up. Let him play further up the field, and the midfield around him has to help. Adomah and Elmo on the wings aren't very attacking, and McGinn doesn't join the attack. Often Grealish gets the ball on only has one option in front of him. 

I agree with this. It must be frustrating for him to get the ball back in a decent position, look up and see that Elmo has gone to RB and Adomah is standing beside Taylor. We seem to play wingers mainly for their defensive work, and our full backs never overlap. We need to put out a team that wants to attack. Go with Thor, Grealish and McGinn or Hourihane in midfield with a front three of Tammy, El Ghazi and Bolasie or Kodija. If we get attacking players on the pitch Jack will supply the bullets. 

[sparrow1988]

On 16/09/2018 at 23:29, Cjay said:

Is that Bruces fault, Jacks fault or a combination? 

 

I would say it is a combiantion of both. I don't think that the system that he is currently employed in allows him to be as effective as we would like but I also don't know if he is capable of being prolific as he has not really been afforded the opportunity. Also the fact that when he gets the ball he is normally confronted by a minimum of a back four and one/two central midfielders from the opposition and a maximum of two/three (if very lucky) very often just one from us means that his options are very limited and that it is difficult to conjure up anything. 

Look at the goals he has scored for us, they are nearly all (if not all - I'm working from memory here) individual efforts, almost all crackers. Even the near miss in the playoff final he rounded half of Fulham's team and nearly scored a wondergoal. The goals rarely consist of a planned attack or build up just off the cuff individuality. Come to think of it all our goals nearly are. The ability is definitely there and it just requires the right environment in which to flourish. 

Looking at what I've just written, I have to say that my opinion is that most of the fault lays at Bruce's door.

[Cjay]

11 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

Yes he is.

He's wasting his career at Villa with our current club situation. Which is good for me as I get to see him play.

He's probably looking at Maddison on the cusp of the England squad and even Leeds suddenly playing football and wondering if he's made the right decision to stay here.

Much as i think he is overrated by some on here i would be interested to see him in a more expansive style. 

Clearly has talent, be interesting to see how he performs in a Brentford style or us, that sort of thing.