Aston Villa playmaker Jack Grealish will be crucial to their hopes of reaching the Premier League.
Sky Sports pundit Danny Higginbotham has sung the praises of Aston Villa ace Jack Grealish and claimed he has ‘kicked on to another level’ since returning from injury.
At the start of March, Grealish returned from a near three-month injury lay-off with Villa’s season in tatters and their promotion hopes going down the drain.
But since his return, they won 10 games on the bounce in the league and pushed themselves into the top-six and are now preparing for the playoffs.
Speaking to Match Centre on Sky Sports News (09/05/2019 at 10:50 pm), Higginbotham praised Grealish’s leadership skills and qualities as a footballer.
“Dean Smith gave him the captaincy,” Higginbotham told Sky Sports News. “I asked Dean Smith if there was any reason why he was giving him the captaincy and he said ‘he’s a leader, I believe he can be a leader on the pitch’.
“And then when they played Birmingham and that awful situation happened. That’s when you saw the leader in him. He just went on and kicked on to another level. He’s been nothing short of outstanding. He’s been a real outstanding player in the Championship this season and very unique as well in the way he plays.”
There is no doubt that if Grealish turns on the heat in the playoffs then Villa’s chances of reaching the Premier League will increase dramatically.
On Saturday afternoon, Dean Smith’s side will welcome Midland rivals West Brom for the first of their two-legged encounter. A lead in the opening game will be crucial to their hopes of reaching Wembley.
But if Villa find themselves losing the playoffs and spending another season in the Championship then they will do very well to keep hold of their star man, who is arguably the best player in the second tier of English football.
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