Jack Grealish is Villa’s talented youngster who is making some news this week with the rumors that Chelsea have been eying him while Villa are looking to lock him up to a long term contract. So what is the fuss about? The 19 year old has only played 36 minutes this season, featuring late in Villa’s two wins against Hull and Stoke (according to Paul Lambert, he was slated to play in the draw against Newcastle as well before Aly Cissokho came off injured) but in those 36 minutes he has shown flashes of what makes him special. It’s not just the hair:

Ball Control

Working on the left side during his time on the pitch, Grealish has shown a deft touch, especially in tight spaces. Against Stoke, Jack showed the ability to take the ball down off of throws with defenders on his back marking him closely.

Against Hull City, Grealish was able to draw 4 fouls in just 16 minutes of play, and again it was due to his ability to control the ball in tight spaces with defenders around him:

In these clips, Grealish is keeping the ball on the string, and with his quick feet he is able to nick the ball away from tackles at the last second, drawing fouls from the defender. With Villa protecting one goal leads in both of his appearances, there weren’t many opportunities to go forward, but even as he sat back defending, you could see how well Grealish controls the ball. In the game against Hull, Grealish had two pretty fantastic interceptions:

What impresses me here is not the ability to get a foot on the ball, but the way he is able to keep the ball close enough where he can gain possession after intercepting the pass.

Passing

Where Grealish struggled during his short time on the pitch was with his passing. Even though Grealish has completed 78% of his passes (including 100% of his passes against Stoke), the passes have been poor:

On these passes, you see teammates slowing down or turning around to meet the pass. It appears that Grealish is having a hard time weighting his passes. He does a good job of keeping his head up and picking out the correct pass, but he is struggled to hit teammates in stride right now. If he can get comfortable with his teammates and do a better job of passing into space, you will see more plays like this:

On this pass, Grealish is able to combine his ball control with a pass that runs right into Delph’s path, allowing Delph to attempt to get a cross in first time.

Mentality

The last thing that you notice when watching Jack Grealish play is the way he carries himself on the pitch. I came away pretty impressed with Grealish’s mentality. He’s shown a willingness to stick his nose in, unafraid of contact.

Here, we see another of Grealish’s poorly weighted passes. However, instead of pouting or blaming Delph, he gets right back into the play and wins possession back for Villa, earning a pat on the back from Delph.

After drawing a few hard fouls against Hull, you wouldn’t blame Grealish for not aggressively going for a 50-50 ball here. However, there was no hesitation from Grealish and he got another bump for his troubles, but the important thing is that he won possession for his team.

And did all of the knocks that Grealish took against Hull put him off? No, they made him smile:

As you probably can tell from the tone of this, I’m pretty high on Jack Grealish, and if he can get more comfortable with his teammates and do a better job of hitting teammates in stride, you can see his role start to expand. As for right now, continue to look for him to have an impact for Villa off of the bench late in matches, especially ones they are winning.