I think as much as we can fault Dean for his tactics or lack of, and his decision not to use subs as much as we think he should, there’s a thing to be said playing without Grealish.
I believe with Jack in the side we were picking up on average 1.78 points, compared to 0.92 when he was out of it, our winning percentage was 57/58% with Jack in the side, 21% without him.
It’s clear as day we need players who can take the load off, it’s been a learning curve for the whole team, for individuals to stand up and be counted, which didn’t happen but slowly started to see more positive performances, our drop against Crystal Palace was unacceptable, Jack in the side we beat Spurs and Chelsea, just his mere presence gives the lads a lift.
You could say Jacks been carrying the team, and since we have a 37% more chance of winning with him in the side, or picking up 0.86 points more per game he becomes irreplaceable, 1.78 x 38 is 67 points.
Without him 35 points and we’re relegated.
He is literally the difference of 32 points, It then becomes more of a Jack Grealish discussion than a Dean Smith one, and the crying need to get real quality to take the pressure off him and the team, be it Buendia, Pereira or some flaming hot prospect in Europe who’s clubs would love 40-50m in their pockets who would be worth twice as much in the Premier League.
He can be frustrating at times, but we’ve had a couple of unexpected results at the end and it’s finished it off quite nicely, let’s see who he’s able to bring in the summer, see if the recruitment team really know their shit who apparently are all into their data analysis, so it’ll be interesting.
For now, Deano we trust.
