Is Jack Grealish the Premier League's best player?
Ryan O’Hanlon uses TruMedia’s ProVision product and graphics to explore what makes Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish so good this season:
“Even more so than goal-scoring, assisting is only partially controlled by the player who ultimately gets the assist. You can play the pass, but then you need your teammate to place the shot on goal and for the opposing keeper or an opposing defender to fail to stop it. The best creative players create lots of chances that are only occasionally turned into assists, and well, only Salah and Kevin De Bruyne have created more chances than Grealish so far this season. …
Almost all of them are either passes into the penalty area or passes from inside the penalty area. He’s not a quarterback throwing a five-yard screen pass that ends up going for a 70-yard TD. Grealish is putting the ball on a platter for his teammates, which is why he’s, once again, second in the Premier League to only Harry Kane in expected assists, which is the best estimation of the combined quantity and quality of goal-scoring opportunities a player creates.”
Full article: No Grass in the Clouds