#7 | Raheem Sterling - 2020/21 Performances

[Pablo ZZZ Peroni]

'Great overall'?

He hasn't though,he has done the bare minimum in games to justify his inclusion,and,considering he is expected to produce world class performances.....he is currently offering nothing more than any other half decent Prem winger couldn't replicate.
At best he's been a 7/10,more often a 5 or 6 - The inflated praise really isn't deserved.

Thanks for that Fantasy but I'll stick to what I said which was that he has been great overall in his last 5 or 6 games before his awful performance against gladbach.

I suspect he has passed the Pep test as well with flying colours i.e as Pep's role for Sterling is markedly changing as part of the team collective, Sterling is coming up trumps with what is expected of him. Now there is a debate :)

Then there is the positive big impacts he has on games. So long as he delivers there it is great with me and I couldn't give a flying fuck about miscontrols, shooting technique etc etc as long as the positives outweigh the negatives.

Sterling has played 6 league games out of the last 7 since the WBA game a month ago and he most definitely delivered with the big impact stuff.

Stats and data back-up my view from those 6 league games

• 2nd best in the league behind Gundog (6+1) with 4 goals and 2 assists.
• 1st for xGChain - a measure of involvement leading to chances
• 1st= with Gundog for Shot Creating Actions ( the best new metric yet for measuring action leading towards a goal attempt - ordinarily KDB is number 1 in the league)
• 1st for successful dribbles - 22 from 36 attempts

The dribble stat is brilliant - Mahrez, Bernardo and Foden had the same number combined.
Also it is approximately half of the 40 odd successful dribbles he had in the entire 17/18 season.
I for one am happy it is back and excited to see more..

So, yep I think he has been great in recent league games.

 

[mcfc482]

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, look for a runner in a good position and lob 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.

Everyone keeps mentioning Bernardo. I am not having a go at Sterling because he is out of form. It’s because he has massive technical deficiencies and it is embarrassing to see what he does sometimes. Honestly you think how this this guy a footballer sometimes. Look at the last 2 games as a sample of this and most people will see what I mean.

Bernardo was a really good player out of form. He can at least do basic things like pass and move consistently well even if he is out of form.

Sterling is an average player out of form. When he is playing well he is an average player in really good form with world class movement hence the goals he scores.

EDIT: He is out the team today, not surprised because Pep was clearly annoyed at him at midweek.

 

[FantasyIreland]

So, yep I think he has been great in recent league games.

We clearly have different standards.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Everyone keeps mentioning Bernardo. I am not having a go at Sterling because he is out of form. It’s because he has massive technical deficiencies and it is embarrassing to see what he does sometimes. Honestly you think how this this guy a footballer sometimes. Look at the last 2 games as a sample of this and most people will see what I mean.

Are you sure? i'm told he was great?

 

[ojeme]

I’d say it was from about October 2019 so that would be around the 18 month mark. That’s when I think his general play started to really slide towards how it was pre Pep. The difference is his movement is miles better than a few years ago and he still continued to get into goal scoring positions.

Obviously I’m not saying he’s not had any good games or spells during that time but he’s not been consistently good for that long. What has continued to mask that poor form in the eyes of some is his goal return. He’s very capable of bagging 3/4 games running now but that won’t mean people are wrong about his glaring weaknesses if he’s still struggling with basic things.

I think we’ve seen lately Pep getting frustrated with him too. I’m one of Sterling’s biggest critics because he could be amazing for us and has been but for all that I still think he’s well worth his place as he provides the only genuine pace we have. Down the right I hope we start to see him regain his confidence when dribbling because if he does no fullback will get near him.

I try to stay away from arguments regarding players’ form because we will mostly have diverging opinions if there is no definite stat to measure “form” over a period. That being said I understand fans’ frustration with Sterling and I share this frustration. However my response to the other poster was attempting to highlight the fact that no one attacker has shown over the period Sterling has been here that they can stake a claim over him at least for now and so the idea to do away with him is uncalled for so long as more technically gifted players do not deliver as much, their potential regardless.

In those times when Bernardo was out of form he was mostly coming on from the bench unlike Sterling who has been at the forefront of our attack even when out of form contributing in goals and assists. It’s not the same. I also don’t think he’s falling down to pre-Pep era levels when Jesus Navas had a fair claim to starting games ahead of him.

 

[Rolee]

Thanks for that Fantasy but I'll stick to what I said which was that he has been great overall in his last 5 or 6 games before his awful performance against gladbach.

I suspect he has passed the Pep test as well with flying colours i.e as Pep's role for Sterling is markedly changing as part of the team collective, Sterling is coming up trumps with what is expected of him. Now there is a debate :)

Then there is the positive big impacts he has on games. So long as he delivers there it is great with me and I couldn't give a flying fuck about miscontrols, shooting technique etc etc as long as the positives outweigh the negatives.

Sterling has played 6 league games out of the last 7 since the WBA game a month ago and he most definitely delivered with the big impact stuff.

Stats and data back-up my view from those 6 league games

• 2nd best in the league behind Gundog (6+1) with 4 goals and 2 assists.
• 1st for xGChain - a measure of involvement leading to chances
• 1st= with Gundog for Shot Creating Actions ( the best new metric yet for measuring action leading towards a goal attempt - ordinarily KDB is number 1 in the league)
• 1st for successful dribbles - 22 from 36 attempts

The dribble stat is brilliant - Mahrez, Bernardo and Foden had the same number combined.
Also it is approximately half of the 40 odd successful dribbles he had in the entire 17/18 season.
I for one am happy it is back and excited to see more..

So, yep I think he has been great in recent league games.

Yep, wouldn't go as far as great, although he has been at times in that run but overall very good. I wonder what people are watching sometimes.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Hopefully the rest (extend if necessary) does him the world of good and he comes back the player nearing the world class tag that he earnt a couple of seasons ago and prior.

We are a far worse team for a struggling Sterling.

 

[FantasyIreland]

I wonder what people are watching sometimes.

Agreed.

 

[Rolee]

Agreed.

What you think of his second half at Anfield, great or not?

 

[ojeme]

Everyone keeps mentioning Bernardo. I am not having a go at Sterling because he is out of form. It’s because he has massive technical deficiencies and it is embarrassing to see what he does sometimes. Honestly you think how this this guy a footballer sometimes. Look at the last 2 games as a sample of this and most people will see what I mean.

Bernardo was a really good player out of form. He can at least do basic things like pass and move consistently well even if he is out of form.

Sterling is an average player out of form. When he is playing well he is an average player in really good form with world class movement hence the goals he scores.

EDIT: He is out the team today, not surprised because Pep was clearly annoyed at him at midweek.

My point being that if you do the basics well and it doesn’t translate to enough scoring or creating, it leaves much much more to be desired. If Sterling plays like a farmer but is always high up there in terms of final output, my question to the other guys that play more like footballers but cannot match that output would be “why do you deliver worse than a farmer.”

Bernardo only picked form of late you must remember. For many months even sometimes when we played in the KDB role, he wasn’t a threat. Dribbling effectively, keeping the ball, passing nicely and those little little nice things without having the cutting edge to do anything of note or really hurting the opposition.

We must recognized that these guys are talented differently and live with it as we hope for the best. I know we have our favorites (and by the way I am more of a Bernardo fan than a Sterling one) but I want us to be fair to Sterling. Even he knows that he’s not doing well at the moment but I think we aren’t fair to him.