The debate over Jack Grealish's international future rumbles on with no resolution in sight in the near future. We are all aware as to how good Grealish could become but these stats show just how fearful teams are of his skills and direct running.
Thanks to WhoScored.com and Martin Laurence we now know how often the Villa player is fouled. Once every 24.5 minutes, to be precise, which is enough to make him the most fouled player in the Premier League per minutes played.
A look at the emergence of @JackGrealish1 on the first team set-up at #AVFC@WhoScoredhttp://t.co/nnKP30Ce52pic.twitter.com/GcB8LrgRfA
— Martin Laurence (@martinlaurence7) April 27, 2015
We strongly suspect that this game against Hull City brought the number of fouls up significantly after Nikica Jelavic, Ahmed Elmohamady and Stephen Quinn were all booked for meaty challenges on the youngster. This was all within the space of the 15 minute cameo from Grealish. Steve Bruce must have been aware as to how dangerous Grealish could be.
It is just as well that his legs are built to last, according to Tim Sherwood:
You should see the size of his legs, he’s still a kid. He takes more kicks in training than he does on the pitch so he’s getting a lot of practice fending off kicks. He probably needs bigger pads.
Grealish will have to get thigh, knee and calf protectors along with bigger pads if these stats continue to trend in this direction.
