Guardiola Backs Grealish To Emulate Sterling’s Goalscoring Prowess

Grealish scored his first goal for the Premier League champions since his record £100m move from Aston Villa earlier this month, netting City’s second goal in a 5-0 drubbing of newly promoted Norwich City on Saturday.

An own goal from goalkeeper Tim Krul as well as further goals from Aymeric Laporte, Sterling and Riyad Mahrez saw City recover from last week’s opening day defeat to Tottenham Hotspurs.

Grealish is yet to cross the ten-goal mark in his career but Guardiola is optimistic the 25-year-old can take a leaf from Sterling’s books and make the step up.

Guardiola has transformed Sterling into a goalscoring machine since taking charge of Manchester City, with the former Liverpool winger scoring more than 20 goals in three of the last four seasons.

“If he gets the mentality to score goals like Raheem then yeah [he can],” Guardiola told a press conference about Grealish having the same impact as Sterling.

“Raheem, when I arrived here, four or five years ago, didn’t have the goal in his mind. That immediately changed.

“Today Raheem scored a goal because he arrived in the central position like a nine. He is a machine there. Since the first season he changed his mind and decided I am going to score, score, score.

“I don’t know if Jack has that mentality that I’m going to score a goal and win games, I have to discover it. Of course with his quality, he can do it.”