Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said he always kept his faith in Jack Grealish after the midfielder scored his first goal of the season in Saturday’s 3-0 Premier League win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Grealish opened the scoring after being criticized for a lackluster performance in the Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund as well as a lack of goals and assists since his £100m transfer from Aston Villa last year.
“I’ve always said if you’re here, it’s because I trust you implicitly, all of you. I know you,” Guardiola told reporters after the win.
“He scored a goal and it was a good performance. Every time he has the ball it’s one-on-one against the full-back all the time.
“OK, he hasn’t scored or assisted (in previous games) but it’s a matter of time,” he said. “Obviously I’m happy to play for him, for the win, for his incredible personality.”
Guardiola added that he liked the partnership between Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez as the pair played side by side towards the end of the game after Alvarez came on in the 71st minute.
“We have two strong strikers and that was the second time I’ve seen Erling and Julian together, in the final minutes like against Bournemouth, and I like it,” added Guardiola. “They can be a bit more aggressive, they have a sense for goals.
“It’s nice to have two key players (Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus) go to add and still have the tendency to score goals and create a lot of chances.
“We feel like if we change gears we can create a lot of chances in a few minutes.”