Jack Grealish has been told that he could find himself back at Aston Villa if his Manchester City form doesn’t improve as soon as possible.
This comes after yet another disappointing performance from the England man during City’s 3-1 defeat in the FA Community Shield against Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp’s Reds lifted the first trophy of the season at Leicester’s King Power stadium after goals from Trent Alexander Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez. New signing Julian Alvarez was the scorer for Pep Guardiola’s side.
Grealish failed to establish himself in the game and found himself replaced by Phil Foden just shy of the hour mark. The former Villa man is under intense scrutiny after his record move to the Etihad last season.
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His first season was a disappointment as he only managed to find the back of the net three times in 28 Premier League appearances.
According to former Villa striker Tony Cascarino, Grealish has to pick up his form or he could find himself being moved on by the club.
He told talkSPORT: “At the end of the season, if he doesn’t pick up his standards, what we know he’s capable of and why they paid £100m for him, he’ll probably be loaned out or he might end up back at Villa.
“He’s not playing well enough consistently for Man City.
“I’m not talking about being OK, six out of tens. He should be eight or nine. He’s got so much quality.”
The former striker added: “Jack has got an issue. You can’t be a £100m player and be OK, your standard is higher than that.
“City’s standard is higher than that and he has been six out of ten too often.”
Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has also had his say on Grealish’s difficult start under Guardiola.
He said: “We’ll try and give Jack the benefit of the doubt... We're thinking maybe he should have gone to City and maybe adapted a bit quicker but sometimes it can be difficult.
“We've seen him being left out of big games for City and Gareth [Southgate] has done the same with England. The penny has to drop with Jack, if you want to be a real top player you’ve got to step up to the plate a bit more and the manager’s got to have a bit of trust with him.”
Keane added: “But this will define a player, these moments, can you put the ball in the back of the net and get your team into the final? And that’s where Jack has just come up short, but I wouldn’t be writing him off just yet.”
Will Grealish be able to show his worth in the new season? Only time will tell.
Topics: Aston Villa, Jack Grealish, Manchester City, Julian Alvarez
Marcus Chan