In Manchester City's 4-1 Champions League victory against Club Brugge on Wednesday night, Jack Grealish once again hinted at the creativity and guile that persuaded the Blues to pay £100 million for his services.
During his 68-minute appearance he created three clear chances, a tally bettered only by man-of-the-match Joao Cancelo, as he showed flashes of both his dribbling and passing prowess.
However, there's still a sense that Grealish has plenty more to give. The England international is going to need time to adapt to Pep Guardiola's way of doing things at City, that much is obvious, but there also appears to be some systemic issues.
"I don't think he fits perfectly to Man City," BT Sport pundit Michael Owen said of Grealish after the game.
"They want to play quickly, intricate passing... Grealish takes a touch all the time - he takes a touch, he slows it down, he then runs at people and commits them.
"[He needs] to do things a little bit quicker, instead of taking three, four touches. I don't think he fits like a glove [at City]."
It was by no means an outrageous argument from Owen - admittedly, the pace of City's attacks slowed whenever Grealish got on the ball, with his propensity to draw defenders in to create space proving ineffective against a well-organised Club Brugge defence in the first half.
It is true, as Owen went on to say, that at Aston Villa he was the main man, with all of their attacking play going through him. At his former club he was never really used as a winger like he is now, but more an attacking number eight who would often cut inside. It's also true that, at the moment, he has not fully adapted to Guardiola's requirement that wide players stay high and wide.
However, in defence of Grealish, the issues are not entirely of his own doing.
Against Brugge on Wednesday night, City's attacks were incredibly narrow prior to Phil Foden replacing Grealish on the left and Raheem Sterling replacing Riyad Mahrez on the right.
Deploying 'inverted' wingers - right-footers like Grealish on the left and left-footers like Mahrez on the right - is nothing new from Guardiola, but this season he has tended to balance it out by having number eights with the opposite foot preference attacking down each wing.
That means that usually, Bernardo Silva teams up with Grealish on the left flank. The former Villa man can cut in and cross with his right foot, or Bernardo can overlap and cross with his left but against Brugge, Bernardo was the right-sided number eight and Ilkay Gundogan the left.
In other words, there were two right-footers on the left and two left-footers on the right. With left-back Joao Cancelo being right-footed too, Grealish had no one overlapping him who he could play a quick pass to; he had little option but to cut inside every time.
It was telling that the one time Cancelo did overlap Grealish and crossed with his weaker left foot, City scored.
When Sterling and Gabriel Jesus came off the bench, City instantly looked better. Sterling went over to the right wing and provided a number of dangerous overlapping and underlapping runs, one of which led to the Gundogan cross from which he scored.
Foden surrendered his central role to Jesus and moved to the left, where he broke the defensive line in finding an underlapping Gundogan with a superb pass.
As well as providing more width, Sterling and Foden both looked quicker in their passing and decision making than Grealish, although that is probably because Grealish is still adapting to Guardiola's system.
That being said, Pep now faces a dilemma ahead of derby day. Sterling looked sharp as he ended his goal drought and importantly his introduction improved a lethargic looking City.
If the Catalan coach wants to increase the speed of City's attacks as well as exploit the space United's wing-backs Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw will likely leave behind them, then starting Sterling and Foden on the wings, or even Jesus, might be a good idea.
If so, Grealish could start his first Manchester derby on the bench.
Do you think Grealish is the problem or does Guardiola's system need tweaking? Follow City Is Ours writer Alex Brotherton on Twitter to join the conversation and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
