After an impressive performance that saw him assist the second of England's three goals against Ivory Coast on Tuesday, Manchester City's Jack Grealish was understandably chipper in his post-match interview.
"I've spoken to Pep Guardiola," Grealish told Sky Sports. "He's shown me every other stat in the world that you would be happy with apart from goals and assists. He's the only person I need to impress but if you're a forward you want to get goals and assists so hopefully in the business end of the season I can get them."
His recent comments stand in stark contrast to those he has made previously this season, where he has tended to agree with the general consensus that his first season at City is not going according to plan.
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Grealish has received widespread criticism this season from City fans, pundits and supporters of other clubs, largely because his return of two goals and two assists in the Premier League this season is not deemed good enough for a man that cost £100m last summer. Arguably, he himself has been his biggest critic.
"I've found it a lot more difficult than I thought I would," he told the Daily Telegraph in November. "At first I thought I’d have more of the ball, get more assists and goals but it doesn’t work like that at all."
Contrast that to now though, and it appears that Grealish is finally starting to understand the bigger picture that Guardiola has been trying to explain for months. In fact, in many ways, he is developing into the perfect Guardiola winger.
From a statistical point of view, it's clear that Grealish's game has changed. He is doing less of the direct, exciting attacking things he became known for at Villa Park; his progressive passes into the 18-yard box are down from last season, as are his key passes and carries (dribbles) that enter the final third of the pitch.
On that basis, it's understandable that some think that he has regressed, but there are factors that help to explain the drop-offs. Grealish has moved from a counter-attacking team to a possession-based one; City's passing is more patient, whereas when Villa attacked - often through Grealish - he would be expected to play forward passes nine times out of ten.
At City he plays as a high-and-wide winger, briefed with stretching the pitch to create space in the opposition defence for City's inside attackers to exploit. At Villa, he often collected the ball from deep and drove forward, but he can't do that if his starting position is already high up the field.
Grealish is taking only slightly fewer shots per game this season compared to last - 1.8 vs 1.9 - suggesting that his reduced goals return is down to a spell of poor finishing rather than anything else. That won't last.
Simply, Guardiola is not asking Grealish to be his Aston Villa self; he demands Manchester City Grealish. There are many aspects of Grealish's game that his manager, as well as his teammates, are delighted with.
"In this day and age, if you’re an attacker people say goals and assists are very important. He attracts so many defenders and the rest of us can benefit from that," Kevin de Bruyne said recently.
"Maybe he's wrong. Maybe he listens too much to what people say," Guardiola said on Grealish's self-critique. "We didn't buy him to score 45 goals. He doesn’t have that quality he has another one.
"Always we talk about the statistics - the players today play for the statistics but this is the biggest mistake they can do. We're involved in that. Statistics are just a bit of information that we have but there are players that make the team play good and they are not into statistics.
"It's how you play today if you perform to your maximum, to your best, help your teammates to make the process defensively and offensively better - it's enough."
As Grealish said after the England match, goals and assists at City have been hard to come by. But now that he has stepped back and come round to Guardiola's way of thinking, he will realise that he is doing things that are far more important to this City team.
There is the possibility that he will benefit from having a more traditional striker to play off next season, should City prove successful in their pursuit of Erling Haaland. After all, the striker-fronted system is the only one he knew until this season.
Regardless, Grealish has been a success at the Etihad Stadium. It requires a narrow-minded, one-dimensional view of football to suggest otherwise.
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