Shaun Wright-Phillips has hailed Jack Grealish as the closest thing to England legend Paul Gascoigne.
Joining Manchester City in the summer for a British transfer record fee of £100million, Grealish has wasted no time settling in and grabbed a goal on his Champions League debut midweek as the club ran out 6-3 winners over RB Leipzig.
An equally impressive start to his debut Premier League campaign at the Etihad has seen the attacker’s star continue to rise.
Former City winger Wright-Phillips has been watching what Grealish has added to Pep Guardiola’s side since joining from Aston Villa and has compared him to one of England’s most technically gifted players.
“I love to watch him play,” Wright-Phillips said on the RB Leipzig edition of Matchday Live.
“When he was at Villa, he was, for me, the closest thing you’re going to get to Paul Gascoigne. Once he gets more comfortable the more and more of it we’re going to see.
“You can have two players on him but he’ll find the way through to create that chance.
“The way teams play against City, where they sit back a lot, you need that cute player who, no matter how many players you put round them, he still thinks he can beat all of them. I think you need that.
“The one thing Pep is going to bring to his game is that he doesn’t need to be the one to do it all the time.
“There’s others in the team who can do that as well, maybe not the way he does it, but in a different way.”
Grealish scored City’s fourth goal on Wednesday night, cutting in off the left and beating his defender on the inside before unleashing a curling effort across the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.
On his terrific European debut goal, Grealish said after to BT Sport: “I think, did Ruben go into a tackle or something? Then the ball’s come to me and when I’m in that position of the left-hand side running into the opposition penalty area I’d back myself in a one-v-one against anyone to have a go.
“That’s what I’ve done and luckily it’s paid off and I managed to hit the back of the net this time. I had a few in the first half that got blocked but I’m obviously delighted to get the ball.”
Sign up to our City newsletter so you never miss an update from the Etihad Stadium this season.
