England coach Gareth Southgate has hinted that he is now more likely to pick Jack Grealish in his starting line-up due to an improvement he has seen in Villa’s former man since arriving at Manchester City.
The Villa academy graduate completed a record £ 100m transfer to the Etihad from Villa Park last summer. It was during his time at Villa that Grealish entered the English national team, but Southgate was criticized for not using the striker enough in Euro 2020.
Grealish started just one of seven games during the Three Lions race in the final. Since moving to the Etihad, he has been in and out of the Premier League starting line-up, but has seen his headlines rise in England.
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“It’s interesting that last summer I spent all summer pounding for not picking it, now I’m told I shouldn’t choose it, but this is my world,” Southgate said via the Telegraph .
Grealish scored three times and offered three assists in the Premier League during the season he had just won his first Premier League title. The former Villa man has been criticized for his performances in some areas, but Southgate has said he has seen an improvement, while also liking the player’s celebrations during last week’s trophy parade.
“I think he has learned a lot of positioning. Undoubtedly, tactically, his work without a ball has improved in a period of 18 months “, he said. “In Villa he was very unique, he was the one who gave them hope, made them get on the pitch, he had total freedom with what he was doing. It’s a very different question, more aligned with the club [as opposed to] … What we asked him to do.
“Besides, it’s this free spirit as we’ve seen for the last 48 hours that he just wants to enjoy his football too. He is what he is. If you had told me ‘He won’t score 20 goals this year’; well, I wouldn’t have expected that. He is the one who likes to be the provider. He is the one who could play the pass before the assist. He’s a different kind of player. Whether it’s adding up the far post, like Raheem [Sterling] he’s done it for several seasons, maybe he’ll, maybe he won’t. I don’t know if that’s how it’s wired. He enjoys both creation and annotation. “
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