Jack Grealish: Gareth Southgate praises ‘outstanding’ Jack Grealish

Grealish impressed on his first competitive start for England

England manager Gareth Southgate praised Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish’s “outstanding” performance in his side’s defeat by Belgium on Sunday.

Grealish, 25, made his first competitive start for his country in the 2-0 loss in Leuven, which ended England’s hopes of qualifying for the Nations League finals.

The Villa playmaker has made an impressive start to the season with four goals and five assists in seven Premier League.

“Today was a great game for us to see him in. I couldn’t speak highly enough of his performance,” Southgate said.

“I thought Jack Grealish had an absolutely outstanding game. Losing Raheem Sterling and Marcus Rashford, we lose a lot of speed. But I can’t fault the attacking play until the last chance.

“I saw what I knew I would see from Jack, someone with the bravery to play. He took the ball in tight areas, his technique was good, we knew he would buy a lot of free-kicks. I thought he was outstanding – he should be delighted. I explained to him what we wanted to see when we brought him in in September.”

Asked if Grealish had moved himself up the order for future games, Southgate added: “Yes, 100%”.

England finished third in the inaugural Nations League finals in 2019.

The Three Lions’ final match of their Nations League Group A2 campaign is against Iceland at Wembley on Wednesday (19:45 GMT), after a UK government exemption was granted to the away side.

Reflecting on defeat, Southgate said: “We don’t like losing, but enormous credit to the team, all the way through they created problems and defended resiliently. I thought we were excellent. I couldn’t have enough praise for the players.

“If you play at the level we did tonight, I think we will win more games than we lose.”