Jack Grealish: I would love to be compared to Gazza | Football news

Jack Grealish is happy the comparisons to Paul Gascoigne keep coming after he dazzled in his first outing in England on Thursday night.

The Aston Villa midfielder was England’s standout player in their 3-0 win over Wales at Wembley, receiving an assist and looking like the most creative player on the pitch.

Grealish’s style of play and the way he endures solid challenges has sparked comparisons between him and a top-tier Gascoigne, with the 25-year-old ranking him as his favorite footballer.

“I know about Gazza,” he said. “I don’t really look like him, but I would love to be like him, the way he played football.”

“He played with such … I don’t know what the correct word is, but he played football with such joy. I think everyone who saw him could see him. That’s what I want to do.”

“One of the biggest compliments people can give you is that you make them happy watching football.

“My old coaches have told me that. I’ve already received a nice message from one of my old coaches. For them, when they were training me at ten past nine, watching me leave for England was huge for them.

“It’s huge for me and my family, but I’m proud of my former coaches.

“I would love to be compared to Gazza. I think he is an absolute icon. He, along with Wayne Rooney, was probably one of the best players in England in the last 30 years.

“There has been a load, but if they were the first two, Gazza would be the first.”

Grealish has had to wait a long time to get his shot at England, but based on evidence against Wales he will be with the team for some time.

However, it has not been an easy journey for Grealish, who was sent home from a boys’ camp in England after collapsing and then went on to play for the Republic of Ireland at the youth level.

But having finally made it to Gareth Southgate’s first team, he’s not about to let it go.

“I can’t remember much of it, I don’t know what happened,” he said of the incident as a teenager. “I was just a young guy, I was going to meet the best players from England, from all over the country, and it was a huge difference from what I was used to.

“When I arrived I woke up in the middle of the night, went to go to the bathroom and then my roommate, who was Diego Poyet, Gus Poyet’s son, heard a crash and then I woke up in the bathroom.

“Obviously I had broken down. I didn’t want to go home the next day, but England said they thought it best if I did.”

“From then on, I went to play for Ireland down to the youth levels and I played for them because of how much I enjoyed it, but as I got older I realized that I am English, my family is English and in the future that’s what What am I going to do, I want to do.

“I want to play for England and I am very grateful to the coach for making it possible.

“And I want to be in the team now for the next, no matter how long, five, six years, and I want to have a long career in England and be international.”

Southgate described Villa’s man as a “matador” with the ball, but is concerned about the kicks he receives from opposition defenders.

“Well, you know he will because he does it for his club and I haven’t seen him fumble too often in those kinds of situations,” Southgate said.

“He’s a killer in those situations, isn’t he? The only thing that worries me from time to time is that when he is holding onto the ball he gets hit and you don’t want him to get injured as the game progresses.

“I know he’s the most fouled player in the league and he fouls them, but I was a little worried he would get kicked and get in trouble.

“No, in those deeper areas he is confident enough to play and you are not thinking that he is the type of player who is going to turn the ball in that situation.”

“An” x-factor “player with rolled-up socks, children’s shin guards, and a broad Brummie accent”

Sky Sports News reporter Rob Dorsett discusses whether this is a watershed moment on the international stage for the Aston Villa captain.

Aston Villa fans have long chided their former favorite, Gareth Southgate, for overlooking the current club favorite. But at Wembley, against Wales, Jack Grealish finally had his first outing in England. And it flourished.

Over the past 18 months, it has become clear that the England manager doesn’t think Grealish fits the way he wants his team to play. The pace and straight running of Sterling, Rashford and Sancho, getting behind the opponent’s defense, is much more in line with Southgate’s game plan.

Grealish is different than that. An enigma. An “x factor” player with rolled-up socks, boys’ shin guards and a broad Brummie accent – a unique and individual player more akin to the unpredictable style of Paul Gascoigne, with whom Southgate had such a productive time with England as a player. in the late 1990s.

And his courage was there for everyone to see at Wembley on Thursday night.

It was Grealish’s cunning that gave Dominic Calvert-Lewin his first international goal on a layup.

It was a deception by Grealish that he won the free kick with which Conor Coady scored his first international goal.

And in a monotonous first half hour, only when Grealish was on the ball did it seem like England could create something.

Most experts had him as their man of the match by a mile. Southgate said he was pleased for him, but also had words of caution. He did not dare to praise Captain Villa too much.

Compare what you told me after the Wembley field game about Dominic Calvert-Lewin with what you said about Grealish, who made their first starts in England.

About Calvert-Lewin:

“His game in every way was excellent. His presence, his backward play, his pressure. I think he won all the heads that were played on him. And of course, the goal of each center forward is what makes your night.”

In Grealish:

“He was a lovely cross for goal. He has a creative brain. I think sometimes he can be higher up the field doing that job, because that’s where you want him. That’s where he’s so dangerous.

“I keep insisting that these are the areas of the game where he can make a difference, and he did that tonight. I’m very happy for him.”

Pleased “for” him. I am not satisfied “with” him. Semantics? Perhaps.

But it is clear that Southgate believes that Grealish is not the finished article, that he still has areas of his game to improve.

Rather, this is what former England coach Steve McClaren told Sky Sports News on Friday:

“England need to find a way to get him (Grealish) into the team. It’s what England was missing. It’s hard to build a team around him internationally, but once he started roaming (against Wales) he caused so much trouble. “. . “

Back to the game. Once again at Wembley there was a litany of fouls against Grealish. Remember that he was the most fouled player in the Premier League last season.

His critics say he goes down too easily, or is fouled so often because he doesn’t throw the pass fast enough. But on the field of international football, even more so than in the Premier League, free kicks in and around the opponent’s penalty area can change the rules of the game.

As we saw against Wales, with a brilliant free kick from Kieran Trippier (won by Grealish) that found Conor Coady at the back post, and almost ended the game as competition.

While Villa’s fans have been loud on social media, berating Southgate and howling for Grealish’s inclusion, there is bewilderment in the halls and offices of Villa Park as to what else the club captain can do to become a regular at England.

Let’s be honest: Against Wales, Grealish shone while acting as a puppeteer for England’s second string. Southgate kept his gunpowder dry and his heavy weapons ready for Sunday’s Nations League battle royal with Belgium.

Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford, both rested against Wales, will certainly start on Sunday.

But with Sterling absent through injury, and Sancho lacking in match fitness and the favor of his coach, Grealish could get the go-ahead for a starting spot on the left, against the FIFA ranked team as the world’s number one. .

And if he performs a similar performance as he did on Thursday night, against the best opposition in the world, it will become increasingly difficult for the England manager to justify leaving Jack Grealish out of the starting XI going forward.