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Super Jack – Making The difference to Aston Villa’s Promotion Charge

By Josh Allerson

DERBY, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 16: Andreas Weimann of Derby County fouls Jack Grealish of Aston Villa during the Sky Bet Championship match between Derby County and Aston Villa at iPro Stadium on December 16, 2017 in Derby, England. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)
DERBY, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 16: Andreas Weimann of Derby County fouls Jack Grealish of Aston Villa during the Sky Bet Championship match between Derby County and Aston Villa at iPro Stadium on December 16, 2017 in Derby, England. (Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images) /
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Jack Grealish has been one of the standout performers in a Villa side that has looked rejuvenated since the turn of the year. He has come back from a nasty injury sustained in the summer that kept him out of action until November.

After a gradual re-introduction to first-team action, we have seen some of Grealish’s best performances in an Aston Villa shirt. He has earned rave reviews from fans and pundits alike. In short, he is starting to deliver on the promise of his talent.

Impact

Grealish has always been creative. After just 13 Championship appearances (of which seven were starts), he sits third in Aston Villa’s assists chart. He is behind Robert Snodgrass and Ahmed El Mohamady. Both of those players above him have 24 and 27 appearances respectively.

While Jack’s three assists for the season seems meagre, he is only one behind El Mohamady with half the appearances. At the same time, that he has the third highest number of assists in the league for Aston Villa which shows how much the squad lacks creativity without him.

Formation helps

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Villa’s recent winning run has coincided with a shift in formation to a 4-1-4-1. That change in shape has seen a number of players’ form improve dramatically. This includes Hourihane, Snodgrass, and everybody’s favourite Viking, Birkir Bjarnason. In that formation, Grealish sits slightly deeper alongside Hourihane and has instantly delivered some of his best performances.

According to WhoScored, in his four appearances in that position, his average rating is 7.49.  This is a significant jump from the 6.58 average in games when he started in a more advanced role. What’s more, his creative output has increased substantially too. He averages 2.25 key passes per game when playing slightly deeper compared to 1.34 per game from the ’10’ spot.

One of the reasons for this is that when he plays slightly deeper, it allows an increased number of runners getting ahead of him for him – with Snodgrass, Hogan, Hourihane all pushing on when he gets the ball. At the same time, the revelation that is Bjarnason playing in the defensive midfield spot gives Grealish the license to push on and link play.

Key man

While it’s a small sample size, and the whole team is performing well at the moment, Grealish is showing the kind of form that Villa fans have always hoped he could produce.

Way back in pre-season, before Grealish got injured, Steve Bruce commented that he planned to build the side around Jack. If this is what that looks like, Super Jack is going to be absolutely key to our promotion push.

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