He does do some simple things well, and has a great touch. He just doesn’t affect games. Lax marking, few assists, fewer goals. If he game here to develop and get game time (the right thing to do) then he hasn’t developed at all. You can see his latent ability better in the flesh, but you can also see the wide angle shots where he abandons a midfield runner who scores, with Onana still outside our box. Time and time again. Finally came to a head at Chelsea (not alone in that).
I get we are crap, the coaching is probably poor. Often said he will be awesome surrounded by good players. Great teams don’t carry their centre mids!
In terms of elite international CMs, Rice looks great in the middle for Arsenal. Really pushed them up a level. But he also looked fantastic at West Ham, in a decent but worse side. And not just in that last season; in earlier seasons when he was still learning. He still looked good AND won them games.
Grealish looks a shadow of his former self surrounded by the best players in the world. Stood out a mile in a sometime poor Villa side.
If clubs are still extra careful with their cash this summer, I’d worry the better teams won’t be able to risk £50m+ on someone they “think” will be good in a better team. The time for saying he is young and inexperienced past 12 months ago at least. The things he doesn’t do are nothing to do with age or experience. All to do with desire and focus. Need to hope Chelsea are still in the mood to chuck money around to get a proper fee for him.