Pat Nevin has claimed that to even suggest that Pep Guardiola has “ruined” a certain Manchester City player would be inaccurate.
Especially when it comes to attacking players, there is an idea that Guardiola restricts their sense of freedom on the pitch, with the example of Raheem Sterling cited by some.
At Liverpool, Sterling caught the eye because of how exciting of a dribbler he was.
However, when he signed for Manchester City, over the years, the Englishman had much more of a methodical approach to his game.
Sterling started to find himself much more inside the box to finish off his team’s moves and as an outlet rather than just as a threat in one-v-one situations.
However, such a hypothesis ignores the number of attackers the Catalan tactician has taken to another level, whether it be by helping them boost their goal and assist numbers or even defensively.
Pat Nevin says Pep Guardiola has not “ruined” one Man City star
Going back to Sterling, during his time at Anfield, one of the reasons why he used to face criticism was his wasteful finishing.
This trait did not particularly improve when the four-time Premier League winner signed for City.
But Pep Guardiola coached the decorated winger to take up astute positions inside the box, which allowed him to finish from closer distances; making him a world-class goalscorer, despite his striking of the ball still being rather erratic.
Such is the impact Guardiola can have on an attacker’s footballing brain.
However, the Spaniard’s philosophy of positional play means players must occupy specific zones on the pitch.
Perhaps this is one of the reasons why arguments against the two-time treble-winner exist in terms of how much freedom he affords players, despite his setup suiting teams wherever he has managed.
One player who is widely considered to have undergone a vast shift under Pep Guardiola is Jack Grealish, with many suggesting that the legendary coach has snatched away his uninhibitedness; an idea Pat Nevin disagrees with.
Initially, Nevin wrote about how Grealish has to try and beat his full-back far more often in his newsletter for BBC Sport.
“Players who can ‘break the lines’ – that means dribbling past players to those of us over 30 are in demand right now. This is why I have been talking about the [Jack] Grealish v [Jeremy] Doku problem all season here. Jack has to go back to doing his real job of going past defenders.”
“This was finally spotted on TV during the Man City v Chelsea FA Cup semi-final. It has been so blindingly obvious that I started collating the stats months ago.”
Pat Nevin even looked at the statistics to further investigate how risk-averse Jack Grealish is as a player, as Pep Guardiola started him against Chelsea and Real Madrid recently.
“Let’s stick to the last couple of games against Chelsea and Real Madrid. Grealish got the ball in the final third on the left wing with a one v one on 35 occasions – the perfect opportunity to beat Dani Carvajal then Malo Gusto. On only two occasions did he attempt to do so, instead passing backwards or cautiously sideways in 31 of those 35 cases. As a wide player, you live for these moments, but Jack has stopped taking risks.”
“Within four minutes of him being subbed against Real, Jeremy Doku had done the business, testing the defender down the line leading to the [Kevin] De Bruyne equalizer. Against Chelsea at Wembley, it was a similar story, this time Doku to De Bruyne, whose shot was parried for Bernardo Silva to slot in the winner.”
Pat Nevin explained why the idea that Pep Guardiola has destroyed Jack Grealish as a creative force is a myth.
“Jack has to go at defenders again like he used to, he has to take risks, he has to recover his belief in his own ability. Don’t even suggest that Pep Guardiola has “ruined” him by cramping his creativity. If that was the case then Doku wouldn’t be asked to do what the England international is no longer doing.”
“Take some chances Jack and have a go, we will all forgive you when it doesn’t work out. When they come off, those skills will have been worth waiting for.”
Strange games to pick to slate Jack Grealish
In our view, Pat Nevin is spot on about how Pep Guardiola is happy to give Jeremy Doku the freedom to express himself and as a result, it busts the idea that he would be frustrated if Jack Grealish was as explosive as him.
However, it is bizarre that Nevin picked games where Grealish was excellent to criticise his performances.
Against both Real Madrid and Chelsea, City’s number 10 was arguably his team’s best player.
Perhaps the reason why Pat Nevin does not think that was the case is because he does not seem to grasp the role Pep Guardiola has reserved for Jack Grealish.
Grealish’s reserved displays would impress Nevin and other pundits a lot more if they viewed him as a controlling presence out wide; akin to a central midfielder who retains the ball, breaks the lines with his passing and attracts pressers to make space for his teammates.
That is what Jack Grealish did in both games while being quite aggressive in his approach.
Jeremy Doku, on the other hand, who Pat Nevin has championed is a specialist at dribbling in wide areas unlike the England international, who carries the ball the best centrally; which is why Pep Guardiola uses them in varying situations.
That is, Grealish to control and Doku to destroy.