‘I like him very much’: Mourinho says there’s a player at Aston Villa he loves

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Jose Mourinho has told TalkSPORT that he is a huge fan of Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish.

Grealish is gearing up to play for England at Euro 2020, but his starting spot in Gareth Southgate’s team is far from secure.

It seems to have taken a while for Southgate to be fully convinced by the talents of Aston Villa’s captain.

But Mourinho thinks his place in England’s starting line-up for their game against Croatia on Sunday should be totally assured.

“Grealish is untouchable,” Mourinho said. “The best position for him is coming from the left.

“Grealish for me is tremendous and what he creates, give me the ball. He reminds me a little bit of, I don’t like comparisons, but he reminds me of my Figo.

“Figo, I had him in different periods in my career, but I had him in his last season as a player and even then he was like give me the ball and I’ll resolve the problems for you.

“The way he gets the ball, the way he attacks people, gets fouls, gets penalties and his physically very powerful. I like him very much.”

Grealish to shine?

Grealish has shone in England’s build-up games for the tournament, which have improved his chances of starting.

However, the Three Lions do have very strong attacking options – with the likes of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka pushing for a start.

Grealish actually goes into the tournament without ideal preparation.

The Villa man was missing with injury for much of the back-end of the campaign, meaning that he has needed to get his match sharpness back up before the start of Euro 2020.