Since returning from injury, Jack Grealish has been in fine form for Aston Villa.
Tim Sherwood has claimed that Aston Villa ace Jack Grealish has ‘something different’ that England’s current crop of midfield players don’t have.
The former Tottenham man also claimed that Grealish is an ‘England international footballer’ as he urged Three Lions boss, Gareth Southgate to ‘pick him’ in his squad.
During his career, Grealish has represented both the Republic of Ireland and England at U-21 level, but like Declan Rice in recent times, he opted to switch allegiances three years ago, though he never won a senior cap for the ROI.
Speaking to the Debate Show on Sky Sports Premier League (13/03/2019 at 10:50 pm), Sherwood waxed-lyrical about the talents Grealish holds as he made a number of huge claims about the 23-year-old playmaker.
“Now, Grealish is the next one, he needs to pick him,” Sherwood told Sky Sports. “Jack Grealish for me is an England international footballer and we won’t be able to tell that until he is in the Premier League.
“He needs to be shown in the Premier League. Otherwise, no-one is going to give him the credit for it. I think Gareth possibly will because he knows him from the U-21’s. Around world class players, he’s got something different that our English midfield players don’t have.
“The ball is his friend, he drifts past people, he’s a great dribbler, he receives in all areas of the field, in tight areas, he wants to do that. He needs to add more goals and assists. He will do that around better players, he is the next one who will come in from the outside.”
Three years ago, when Sherwood was Villa manager, he brought Grealish into the senior team and started playing him on a regular basis – his standout performance was the FA Cup semi-final win against Liverpool.
In the here and now, if Grealish wants to have any chance of playing for England then he will need to be playing Premier League football, sooner rather than later.
He recently returned from a near three-month injury lay-off, during his time out on the sidelines Villa only won two matches, but upon his return, they have picked up three consecutive wins, most recently against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night.
As a result, Dean Smith’s side, whose play-off hopes looked down and out last month, are now back in the race to finish in the Championship’s top-six because they are only two points behind Derby County.
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