You say Sterling cannot dribble past a guy? I know he has had a poor season but Sterling usually does multiple successful take ons that lead that chances and goals every game. Lately he has been running into blind alleys but when you look at the players in our team that have successful dribbles in the opposition box, Sterling is number one of the lot. Bernardo dribbles very efficiently but whenever he is in and around the opposition box, his first thought is usually to keep the ball and so he finds a passing alternative. Mahrez is similar but doesn’t do it as well as Bernardo. Sterling is the guy that would like to take more risk and try to use pace and trickery to beat 2 or 3 players. I disagree with your submission in that respect.
His passing and general play technique, shooting technique, erratic finishing sometimes, etc are well documented issues about Sterling which I don’t see him improving so much on as he gets older but what he brings to the team (if you are not completely focused on his temporary dip in form) far outweigh these issues and that is what makes your conclusion so wrong. In fact we should be grateful to Pep and Sterling for delivering these mind blowing numbers inspire of these deficiencies. You conclude by saying we should see the back of him and freshen up but have you highlighted the issues with Bernardo’s play how we can look non-threatening for so many months especially if KDB is in the team or when he is playing in attack, how that we do not seem to have the cutting edge and decisiveness in attack many times when he is there despite having a superior technique? Do we ditch Bernardo because of this and “freshen things up.” Do we also ditch him because many of us are pouncing on a very recent dip in form when Bernardo had been relatively poor for like 18 months, are we being fair?
See I don’t have a problem with pointing out his faults but can you just be fair? Apart from the above I would sooner see the back of Torres, Mahrez and Gabriel before ever suggesting his exit. He may be the least aesthetically appealing attacker but he is one of the most decisive and result-oriented.
Do not let decency bias skew your judgement inappropriately.