Grealish isn’t very good at 1v1 dribbles though. He doesn’t have the burst of pace or skills for that in small spaces. Only with lots of space on the counter but City play against parked busses all the time. For that you need a dribbler who is very high level in 1v1s in small spaces, and no one in the world is better at that than Doku. So Pep uses Grealish in that advanced wing position to keep the ball and attract multiple defenders to create space behind those players.
Grealish cooked every full back in the prem 1v1 to the point they just had to rugby tackle him to the ground when he was at Villa, fuck are you smoking to say he isn’t good at 1v1 dribbling lmao
Grealish is still trusted in big games where Pep wants more control. Reducing his influence to just passing back is reductive. He was instrumental in City’s success in CL last year. Especially with his passing and pressing.
Doku has raw talent but doesn’t have Grealish’s consistency or game management skills yet.
![[Data foot] players who have completed the most dribbles this season in the UCL](https://alien.top/pictrs/image/247fa8dd-6a00-4bfe-a8cf-6f00c4d7032c.webp){kind=link}
Pep really turned Grealish into a pass back merchant and then signed Doku and let him do what Grealish was actually good at 😭
Grealish isn’t very good at 1v1 dribbles though. He doesn’t have the burst of pace or skills for that in small spaces. Only with lots of space on the counter but City play against parked busses all the time. For that you need a dribbler who is very high level in 1v1s in small spaces, and no one in the world is better at that than Doku. So Pep uses Grealish in that advanced wing position to keep the ball and attract multiple defenders to create space behind those players.
Vini and Mbappe easily.
Grealish cooked every full back in the prem 1v1 to the point they just had to rugby tackle him to the ground when he was at Villa, fuck are you smoking to say he isn’t good at 1v1 dribbling lmao
Grealish is still trusted in big games where Pep wants more control. Reducing his influence to just passing back is reductive. He was instrumental in City’s success in CL last year. Especially with his passing and pressing.
Doku has raw talent but doesn’t have Grealish’s consistency or game management skills yet.