Jack Grealish and the huge Unai Emery question as Aston Villa hero looks to rediscover his pep
Speculation linking Jack Grealish with a return to Aston Villa is a hot topic this summer, but a lot has changed in the three years since a £100m fee took him from his boyhood to Man City. Has he been left behind?
A lot of thought and planning goes into football transfers – after all, most are not cheap investments, especially at Premier League level. There has to be a specific reason to bring a player to a club like Aston Villa, even if that player is a boyhood fan and former captain of the club.
Three years ago, Jack Grealish departed Villa Park in search of deserved recognition at the highest level of the game. He joined Manchester City in a £100m transfer and looking back over that period, who could blame him? Three Premier League titles, the Champions League, an FA Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup, he’s almost won the lot.
But the summer of 2024 seems a critical point in the former Villa prodigy’s career. On the back of a disappointing personal campaign with limited minutes, and now omitted from England’s Euro 2024 squad, the 28-year-old’s future at club level could be at a tipping point.
As speculation intensifies, there are hints that a return to familiar surroundings may help revitalise Grealish. But a lot has changed at Villa Park in those three years too – going Dean Smith to Unai Emery in the dugout for one. Fighting off a relegation threat to playing in the Champions League being another. So, have Villa left Grealish behind or has the darling of the Holte End still got a roll to play?
His return would certainly bring with it benefits. For one, a lack of Champions League experience within Emery’s ranks heading into the club’s first appearance in the competition in four decades is glaring. Grealish, a winner in 2023, can help negate that by bringing in newfound confidence and leadership.
Three years older and three years wiser, the attacker would also bring with him a database of lessons from one of football’s most highly-regarded coaches in Pep Guardiola. By playing the Spaniard’s way, Grealish would return a much different player to the one that left.
Prior to his exit, under Dean Smith, the Englishman was viewed as the flair player with the most creative output at Villa. As per Fbref.com, in his final campaign at club, Grealish recorded 172 progressive carries of the ball and 189 progressive passes. However, his progressive passes at Man City in their treble-winning campaign almost doubled compared to his Villa best.
His passing accuracy has also improved, averaging a 85.3 percent success rate over the past three years – much better than his 78.9 percent in his final year with Villa. This has much to do with a huge drop in attempted long-range passes (30+ yards). He attempted 100 in his final Villa season, but less than 50 in two of his three years with City.
His greater ability using the ball has come at the expense of direct take-ons of opponents, of which he averages 28 fewer per campaign since he has been a Guardiola player than the 101 attempted under Smith in the 21/22 season. This means Villa would be rediscovering a more complete player overall, still with the ability to produce talismanic moments, but one that can play the manager’s way to a tee.
So can Emery actually accommodate such a player. The Villa boss plays between a 4-2-2-2 and 4-4-2 – much changed from the 4-3-3 that Smith used when Grealish was still on the scene, patrolling the left flank. It even contrasts with Guardiola’s ever-evolving style, which has sacrificed numbers further back in favour of causing overloads further upfield to cause pressure.
The student of Johan Cruyff has been seen to utilise a 4-2-5 formation in the treble-winning season, which has then developed into the 3-2-4-1 that helped win the most recent Premier League crown. In the former, Grealish was handed a left-wing berth – where he excelled with 16 goals and assists. In the latter, albeit with limited opportunities causing his contributions in front of goal to drop by 10, he was utilised sometimes as a left midfielder and at other times on the left of a narrow front three.
Emery could play him off the left in the role which Jacob Ramsey and Morgan Rogers operate in. Both players have strong ball-carrying qualities, like Grealish.
The other – which would be an interesting test of character given he has spent so long as just a cog in a machine – is to once again reinstate Grealish as the main man of the team and play him in Moussa Diaby’s second-striker role. Coming narrow, Grealish could partner with former team-mate Ollie Watkins as an alternative option to the Frenchman and his sheer pace.
At centre stage, his critics would have the best opportunity to be answered with greater positioning to up his goal contribution tally and Villa would reap every single reward of it.
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