Gary Neville has claimed that one Manchester City player has become predictable on the pitch.
After winning the Treble last season, the Blues followed that up by winning the UEFA SuperCup, the FIFA Club World Cup and their sixth Premier League title in seven years this season.
With the season now over, several players in the City squad are set to shift their focus to the upcoming European Championships in Germany.
Now though, one specific figure in Pep Guardiola’s squad has found himself being questioned by one pundit for what he does on the pitch for the Citizens.
Neville says Man City player has changed his game
Speaking in a recent edition of The Overlap, Neville had this to say about Jack Grealish and how he currently views the winger as a player.
He said: “When I watch Jack Grealish I think of someone who is instinctive, beats men at will, but when I watch him for City I think he has become quite predictable out on the left.
“We can’t have a go at Pep, but [there’s] this idea that his creativity has been stifled a bit.”
Since joining the Manchester club from Aston Villa back in the 2021 summer transfer window, the winger has made 125 appearances for City in all competitions.
Across those games, the Englishman has scored 14 goals, delivered 18 assists and won a lot of trophies.
Grealish still showed his creative talent in difficult campaign
Having only started 10 of the 20 Premier League games he appeared in this season, Grealish successfully completed just 18 of the 41 take-ons he attempted, which backs up why Neville thinks this side of his game has diminished somewhat.
Despite that, the £300k-a-week attacker still managed to end the campaign with the joint-fourth-highest rate of shot-creating actions per 90 minutes (4.82) in the City squad.
This shows just how much of a useful creative figure he is for the Blues, despite not being particularly prominent in terms of beating players in one-on-one situations or being a regular goalscorer.
While Grealish has admitted that this latest season has been a struggle for him for several reasons, his focus, once the upcoming international tournament comes to an end, should be solely on getting back to form and cementing a regular spot in the City team so he can prove Neville wrong.