Darren Ambrose believes there is one player at Manchester City who just looks so much happier when Jack Grealish plays.
The 28-year-old recently returned to fitness for City, after suffering a recurrence of a hamstring injury.
Grealish has endured a stop-start season, and has struggled to have the same kind of impact as he did last season.
He has been limited to just 30 appearances so far, for a total of 1796 minutes.
But he made his return to the starting line-up against Aston Villa in midweek, after coming on as a substitute against Arsenal last weekend. Yesterday, he was really good against Crystal Palace, with Dion Dublin praising his performance on Match of the Day.
Today, City’s win over Palace was analysed on Sky Sports News, and Darren Ambrose reckons one player is particularly pleased about Grealish’s return to the team…
Darren Ambrose says Erling Haaland looks so much happier when Jack Grealish plays for Manchester City
Grealish is already starting to look somewhere near his best level again.
He will be determined to make England’s Euro 2024 squad, and also want to play a big part for City as they go in pursuit of three more trophies.
It’s great news for City, and Ambrose believes that Erling Haaland looks a lot happier in a City shirt when Grealish plays.
The Norwegian is known to have a really strong friendship with the £100 million winger. Indeed, earlier this season, he named Grealish as his best friend at the club.
Ambrose said on Sky Sports News: “I think his return… you’ll see an upturn in form in Erling Haaland as well. Not an upturn in form, but (him scoring) more goals.
“When Doku plays, he’s and out and out wide player. He holds onto it a lot, he’s not quite used to the way Haaland is in the box. When Jack Grealish gets the ball it’s head up, dribbling, he’s looking for Haaland’s run. That’s all he wants to do, they’ve got that understanding. I think Haaland looks happier when he’s on the pitch.
“His return for me, you’ll see Haaland scoring a lot more goals, and it’s only a good thing for England as well.”
Haaland is probably happier when Grealish plays
There is probably some truth in this where Haaland is concerned.
The number nine scores goals whoever is in the team. But he does generally seem a bit more lively and happy when Grealish is in that forward line with him.
We know that they have a solid friendship off the pitch.
But it is also clear that they do have a good understanding on it and we will now hopefully see Haaland’s form improve as a result of his friend’s return to fitness and form.
Grealish just needs to keep himself fit. That could well be extremely key for City as they hunt down three more trophies.