Food for Thought in the Jack Grealish England Debate

Lost the Battle, Win the War

While many Aston Villa supporters would have been disappointed with Jack Grealish’s exclusion from the latest England squad, it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise at this stage. When you consider he didn’t make the last England squad, what Grealish has done since the November 2019 call-up didn’t make him a guaranteed shoe-in for selection this time around.

In a bonus podcast on the issue, we take the claret and blue glasses off and look at why Grealish lost his battle to get into the latest England squad and what he has to do to win the war and get into the Euros squad at the end of the season.

Does Gareth Southgate deserve the pile on he got? And what about the evidence that has been put out there to suggest Grealish should have been in the squad?

One stat that has been branded about is Grealish creating 91 chances last season, which ranks him number 4 in Europe. But what does that actually mean in real terms? Watching Villa games last season, can you remember Villa creating so many chances?

Villa strikers must have squandered so many chances, yet in reality they hardly had a shot. Closer analysis reveals that Grealish created eight big chances (the same as Matt Targett and Conor Hourihane), which are real goal scoring chances. He gained his six assists from those eight chances).

This is one example of taking a rational outlook to it.

At the moment, the roll call of players playing for England in the position Grealish plays for Villa, means it’s understandable why Southgate may feel he currently doesn’t need the Villa captain’s services.

However, when it comes to the Euros next year, when he’ll need to assemble a squad for tournament football, surely if Grealish has a decent 2020/21, he has to be in the England squad next summer?

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Episode 113.5 Notes: Food for Thought in Jack Grealish England Debate

The aim for Jack Grealish this season would be to make the England squad for the Euros. The Villa captain not making Gareth Southgate’s first squad of 2020/21 sent the Villa fanbase into uproar. But had he done enough since the last England squad was called up back in November 2019?

While the England boss was lampooned on social media, in this bonus show the MOMS team look at the reality of Grealish’s situation. Since missing out on selection back in November, how does his position now compare to then? Is he in any better position since his lockdown incident or restart form? What exactly is Southgate after for his team? Will Grealish have to change his role at Villa? Have some of these stats been misleading?

We take the claret and blue glasses off and take a rational approach to examine the Grealish’s predicament and ask how he finally gets into the national squad.

He may have lost this battle, but how does he win the war?

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Credits:

David Michael – @oldmansaid 

Chris Budd – @BUDD_music

Phillip Shaw – @prsgame

Produced by David Michael

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