Greaves: First Win Only a Matter of Time
Saturday, 28th Sep 2024 13:32 by Kallum Brisset

Town defender Jacob Greaves believes the Blues’ first win of the season is coming and says the squad assembled are well equipped for the Premier League season.

The Blues are currently without victory in their opening five matches of the campaign but sit outside of the relegation zone with three points, having picked up draws in the last three fixtures against Fulham, Brighton and Hove Albion, and Southampton.

While milestones such as first goal, first point, first clean sheet and first comeback have all been achieved in the opening weeks, the remaining first victory is one that the Blues are eager to tick off sooner rather than later ahead of Aston Villa’s visit this Sunday.

Greaves, one of 12 new arrivals during the summer transfer window, credited manager Kieran McKenna for the recruitment during the off-season, and says the Blues are continuing to work on being a difficult opposition to face as they make the step-up from the Championship to the top flight.

“We’re really well equipped, the gaffer’s signings have been fantastic,” he said. “We’ve signed a lot of good people as well and a lot of good players. The quality that this group’s got is fantastic and I think it’s a matter of time before we do pick up our first win.

“We’re three unbeaten and in those games we’ve shown our quality, hopefully if we keep doing that we’ll be a tough Premier League outfit to face.

“It’s still early days but we’ve played against Liverpool and Man City in the first five games. The individual quality is a lot higher, the athleticism of the players, how hard they can run and the technical ability of players is a different ball game.

“If you switch off for little moments in time, passes can hurt you and they’ve got individual brilliance to work chances.

“You look at the Liverpool game and the passes were so perfect into perfect areas. That’s been hard to deal with, but you obviously know you’re going to face that coming into the Premier League and it’s what is going to make you a better player.

“I didn’t realise that [Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson] nearly slipped on the ball and my header nearly went under him, so a lot of my mates said that I nearly scored and stuff like that but it was an incredible feeling.

“It didn’t feel real at first, walking out seeing these boys that you watch on Super Sunday and Match of the Day, it was kind of like a bit of a whirlwind. But once the game kicks off and you win your first header, I felt like I grew into the game and had a fairly decent one.

“It was disappointing that we lost 2-0, but that first half was probably one of the best halves of football I’ve been involved with going toe-to-toe with Liverpool and probably creating the better opportunities.

“I definitely need to [bring goals to the team], I love to contribute. I’ve scored a couple over the last two seasons so if I can help in that way then I’ll do my absolute best to try and help the team.”

Like so many of his new teammates, Greaves is embarking on his debut Premier League campaign and has admitted it can be difficult to focus on the job at hand while taking in the experience of playing at this level for the first time.

However, the Greaves says he is trying to enjoy the occasion and the ride the team are on along with his own ambitions of staying at this level for the rest of his career.

“I’ve been enjoying the ride,” he said. “Especially having that pressure on you of playing in the Premier League, I’ve loved it. Playing City away and Liverpool you’re thrown into the deep end early doors, but I really did enjoy it.

“I’ve tried to enjoy it but the other side is you need to win games, I obviously want to be playing in this league for as long as possible, and to do that we need to be winning games and picking up points.

“We have done in the first few games, we’ve picked up a lot of decent points, but we know we’re going to have to continue and try and win games. When you win games, you can probably enjoy the ride a little bit more.”

Despite only being 24 years old, Greaves can now claim to have played in all four divisions of professional English football, having worked his own way up through the leagues at Hull City and a loan at Cheltenham Town.

Those experiences have clearly been beneficial for the defender, but Greaves says he has never been too fixated on where he wants to end up, instead focusing on how he can improve as a player day-by-day.

He said: “I’ve never tried to look too much into the future when I’ve been playing. I’ve gone through all the leagues – League Two, League One, the Championship and now the Premier League.

“I’ve just tried to do everything I could day in, day out to give myself the best opportunity at this step in terms of eating the right things and doing the right things to give myself the best opportunity so that when it comes I can try and impress.

“I’ll be doing everything I can day in, day out on the training pitch to give myself the best chance to keep improving and try and keep my head above water.”

When Greaves was asked to name the best opposition striker he has faced so far this season, the answer was an easy and obvious one.

“You’ve got to say [Erling] Haaland, haven’t you,” he responded. “He scored a hat-trick in the game. The finishing ability, the one where he goes round Aro [Muric] and then you think I’ve got a chance of blocking this and he is able to lift it over me. His strength and how raw he is in terms of his power. I’d definitely say him.

“You have moments in the game where he causes you problems and you look back at them and you deal with them there and then. He’s the best striker in the world so you’re not going to face as good as him week in, week out, but you’ve got strikers that can cause different threats and it’s about how you manage them.

“In the game I probably tried to get a little bit too tight to him on one occasion and he just rolls you. So I can definitely learn from that and hopefully take that into the next games.”

The challenges continue for Greaves and the rest of Town’s defensive unit this weekend as Aston Villa, who are competing in this season’s Champions League, make the trip to Portman Road.

Among their centre-forwards are England international Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran, whose red-hot form has already seen him score four Premier League goals this season as a substitute.

“Every weekend you face a different striker that’s got heaps and heaps of ability,” Greaves said. “Whoever plays of Watkins and Duran, we’ve looked at them and they’re massive threats.

“Watching Watkins for England this summer and the goal that he scored [against Netherlands in the semi-final], the brilliance he had for the touch and bang, he can score goals out of nothing. So I fully understand I’ve got to be on my game if I want to be able to deal with him.

“And if he’s not playing they’ve got Duran, who’s been on fire as well, only young too but a strong boy. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

“I enjoy the art of defending. I love blocking shots and heading things away, that’s what I enjoy doing as a defender. Attackers love scoring goals and creating chances, I love blocking shots and that’s what is a real strength of mine. I feel like it’s a strong part of my game.”

Since his initial £15m move from Hull in July, Greaves has started and played every minute of Town’s five league matches on the left of the central defenders.

He has been partnered so far by both Luke Woolfenden and Dara O’Shea, who Greaves says has been enjoyable to form a partnership with the Republic of Ireland international.

He said: “It’s been good in terms of we’ve only played two games together. We kept a clean sheet in the first game, Brighton away which was big for us. I think he’s been fantastic in the way that he’s come in and got straight into it.

“Even Woolfy while I was playing with him was brilliant as well, and then Dara has come in and done just as good. It’s good that there’s two centre-halves that I get on well with in terms of how we play.

“He’s a real leader as well, he’s good with his communication and keeps me concentrated throughout the game in giving me orders and stuff like that which I need. Likewise, I like to help him as much as I can. He’s been fantastic so hopefully that can continue.”

While less natural to him, Greaves can also operate at left-back, a position he says he would be more than happy to play in if he was required.

“If I’m needed then yeah,” he said. “Wherever the manager wants to play me I’ll do my best. I played a lot of left-back over the last two seasons which really helped me in terms of my one-v-one defending out wide against strikers.

“The way we play in build-up at times as a back three, I’m more of the wide one so I’ve been in that area before and it’s nothing too different to me. Coming out of your comfort zone improves you as a player.”

Away from the football pitch, Greaves has joined in with the group of keen golfers within the Blues squad, something he says has helped him settle in and helped get to know his new teammates.

“It’s a hobby I love,” he said. “The weather outside is not great so I’m probably going to be dying down a little bit now and not playing as much. I’m not a member anywhere but I was a member at a Hull golf club so I might have to try and find a membership somewhere round here if anyone could help me out!

“But there’s a good group of lads, I played with Harry Clarke when I first came up here, he was brilliant with me and now I’m really good friends with him. There’s loads of us – Conor Townsend I know from Hull so he’s my partner when we play, but I play with everyone really.

“It’s a really good group and it’s good for the new lads to settle in, playing something outside of football. I love it.”

Asked whether he could improve the swing of manager McKenna, Greaves replied: “I’m not really a golf coach to be fair. I’ve never seen him swing so I’ll have to have a look at it and see if I can help him.

“I watch a lot of golf YouTube as well in my spare time, so I tend to think I know about the dynamic to a golf swing. I was with Harry Clarke and he was shanking it and this was the first time we played – I did say ‘I think you need to do this’ and I bet he thought ‘who’s this guy?’. I can try if he needs more help.”

Photo: TWTD

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