I don't think we can have Grealish through the middle, his crossing is too much of an asset
Copied from a Reddit thread but interesting perspective on Grealish as I’ve thought we might use him centrally:
Man City fan's perspective on Jack Grealish
Hiya fellow "Blues".
I'm a Manchester City fan, have been for 26 years now (christ, I'm getting older), but I follow the Everton sub because I still think we have a spiritual kinship even if things have changed a lot at City over the last 15 years. We've both got irritating Red neighbours, both Red neighbours like to go on and on about the 80s and 90s, we both played Southampton in the last games at our respective former stadiums, and so on.
Thought I'd just pop by and give you my two cents on Jack, who I loved a lot at City. I'm really sad to see him go. Honestly, when it comes to Jack's time at City, I thought he was great, and I'm sick of the myths that are peddled on a constant basis from people who don't watch us week in week out (and even some people who do watch us every week) so I wanted to get ahead of them.
There's this idea that Jack was a super creative player at Villa who roamed around the pitch, scoring goals every week and laying on assists for strikers, and that Pep told him to stop doing that. This was never the case. His best PL season for goals at Villa was... 8 goals. He's never been this marauding maverick Gazza playmaker type people seem to think he was before he came to City.
Jack's role at City played a big big big part in us winning the treble. When he gets that ball out on the left, he drags defenders towards him and creates huge amounts of space for others. Once he starts defending that ball with his body, you can't get it off him. He knows how to control his team's tempo by himself, he slows things down to allow his team to get more and more bodies in attacking positions.
This was always mischaracterised as Jack being told to stop the creative stuff, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Actually in the season we won the European Cup, Jack created more chances (36) than any other player. Jack won't get big numbers for Everton (5-6 goals and a handful of assists imo) but you just watch how his presence gives space to Ndiaye, Dewsbury-Hall, Alcaraz - your danger men.
Under Pep, City win games by starving the opposition of the ball and setting up camp about 35 yards from the opposition goal. Jack was the ideal player for us to have out on that left side, putting in the graft, shaping the rest of the team, keeping us high up the pitch. He was also an incredibly hard worker, contributing defensively and keeping up a really high workrate down that left side.
Since Jack signed, our record with him in the team is much better than our record without him. Even last season, City's weakest for years, he only started one game that we lost. We lost a lot of games last season (by our standards) but Jack only started one of them. That's what he brings. Stability, organisation, territory, recycling the ball. We don't do that half as well without him, calming things down.
He basically turns every attack into a set piece. When the ball goes out to him on the left, he stops it dead, gives your attackers time to find space, and then starts the play moving again. It's like having a free-kick on the corner of the penalty area every time you go forward. Moyes will of course have his own ideas, but I think Pep got the best out of Jack during that 22/23 season and that was his exact role at the time.
Jack's issue, more than anything, has been fitness over the last two seasons. Unfortunately he just got injured a lot. Muscle fatigue issues more than anything. Some City fans speculate that he enjoys a bit of a drink more than he enjoys keeping his body in peak physical condition. Hopefully a move to Everton can give him a new lease of life and get him back on the right track.
What I'm saying is, don't expect Jack to be banging in the goals - he's never been that type of player. He's got a very specific function that he's very, very good at. It's just not particularly flashy. Remember how underwhelmed you all were when City gave you Gareth Barry? And then it turned out he was quietly excellent and improved you as a team under Martinez? That's Jack, just further up the pitch.
I wish him well. I hope it turns around for him. I've honestly loved him at City and I'm sad to see him go.
