#7 | Raheem Sterling - 2020/21 Performances

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mosssideblue said:
Surely better to stay away from threads if you are or feel you are getting wound up by what is being discussed. Frankly, yesterday there was a lot of for and against discussion with no malice or personal attacks and, for me is how a public forum should operate and should be encouraged, not clamped down upon
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Still a couple of the same bad faith arguments thrown in from the usual attention seeker. If the username hadn't been around as long a thread ban would have been issued a long time ago.

Anyway, it is what it is, and it's hard for the topic to not be so divisive when Raheem's form has been shit for so long. He's looked slightly better recently but nowhere near good enough to win over the critics or to win his starting place back.

I guess it comes down to whether he wants to knuckle down or thinks he's owed something more. I'd like to think it's the former.
 
Tugay One Cup said:
Still a couple of the same bad faith arguments thrown in from the usual attention seeker. If the username hadn't been around as long a thread ban would have been issued a long time ago.

Anyway, it is what it is, and it's hard for the topic to not be so divisive when Raheem's form has been shit for so long. He's looked slightly better recently but nowhere near good enough to win over the critics or to win his starting place back.

I guess it comes down to whether he wants to knuckle down or thinks he's owed something more. I'd like to think it's the former.
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For me, I have no problem with his commitment or attitude. He's shown in the past he's a dedicated professional who is prepared to train hard, to practice, to listen to instruction and genuinely to try to improve himself. I cannot imagine these admirable qualities have all disappeared. I might add that he rarely gets injured as well, which a bonus.

My issue is that I just don't think he's naturally good enough at the things we need him to be naturally good at, in our setup. He's fast and strong and makes great runs, but against packed defences, this is not actually that helpful. Especially when those qualities are not matched with great control should he happen to get around a defender.

We need players who have vision (he has none), can receive a ball with a great first touch and instant control (he's terrible at that), and who has calm composure so he can reliably take at least a reasonable proportion of the opportunities that do fall to him (he's useless at that as well.)

He can train all he likes but IMO he's never going to be able to fix this because it's just not the type of player he is. As I've said previously, I think he'd be great in the right team. Actually he'd do very well at the swamp I think - their setup and play would suit him much better. He's just not for us anymore.
 
Chippy_boy said:
For me, I have no problem with his commitment or attitude. He's shown in the past he's a dedicated professional who is prepared to train hard, to practice, to listen to instruction and genuinely to try to improve himself. I cannot imagine these admirable qualities have all disappeared. I might add that he rarely gets injured as well, which a bonus.

My issue is that I just don't think he's naturally good enough at the things we need him to be naturally good at, in our setup. He's fast and strong and makes great runs, but against packed defences, this is not actually that helpful. Especially when those qualities are not matched with great control should he happen to get around a defender.

We need players who have vision (he has none), can receive a ball with a great first touch and instant control (he's terrible at that), and who has calm composure so he can reliably take at least a reasonable proportion of the opportunities that do fall to him (he's useless at that as well.)

He can train all he likes but IMO he's never going to be able to fix this because it's just not the type of player he is. As I've said previously, I think he'd be great in the right team. Actually he'd do very well at the swamp I think - their setup and play would suit him much better. He's just not for us anymore.
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Spot on Chippy lad
 
FWIW I don't think we are going to sell him. I think we are stuck with him, so hopefully he can get some sort of return to form. He cannot surely continue to be as bad as he has been this season.
 
Chippy_boy said:
For me, I have no problem with his commitment or attitude. He's shown in the past he's a dedicated professional who is prepared to train hard, to practice, to listen to instruction and genuinely to try to improve himself. I cannot imagine these admirable qualities have all disappeared. I might add that he rarely gets injured as well, which a bonus.

My issue is that I just don't think he's naturally good enough at the things we need him to be naturally good at, in our setup. He's fast and strong and makes great runs, but against packed defences, this is not actually that helpful. Especially when those qualities are not matched with great control should he happen to get around a defender.

We need players who have vision (he has none), can receive a ball with a great first touch and instant control (he's terrible at that), and who has calm composure so he can reliably take at least a reasonable proportion of the opportunities that do fall to him (he's useless at that as well.)

He can train all he likes but IMO he's never going to be able to fix this because it's just not the type of player he is. As I've said previously, I think he'd be great in the right team. Actually he'd do very well at the swamp I think - their setup and play would suit him much better. He's just not for us anymore.
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Excellent description. Were I him, I wouldn’t sign a new contract unless I had assurances that we were going to play more expansively. If our summer signings mean more of the same style of football, then his deficiencies are only going to be more evident and his playing time reduced further.
 
Chippy_boy said:
FWIW I don't think we are going to sell him. I think we are stuck with him, so hopefully he can get some sort of return to form. He cannot surely continue to be as bad as he has been this season.
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Yeah agree. But how do we approach the contract situation?
 
I think he’ll have a Stones like return to form next season.

The question is whether that’s for us or another side. I just don’t see City allowing him to run his contract down to the final year.

But based on the past 18 months, Sterling’s wage deserves parity with the squad players rather than KDB.

Sterling could not have been given a bigger vote of confidence than being in the starting line up on Saturday. You could also make a case out of all our forward players, he was the least deserving of a start.
 
I know he's been made one of the scapegoats, but he was the best attacker for me for City on Saturday. Not saying much because on one on one's he was dusted most of the time by James, but he also got in behind and his movement was causing them a few problems. For Raz i don't have worries like others do tbfh, it's taking him ages to recover his form but for large parts early on in the season he was great. Even Liverpool away, he was fantastic and caned both TAA and Gomez (i think it was him?). The biggest problem is he's off with England now, and we know what they do for a players form. Ideally a long break and a good pre-season would have done nicely for him.
 
shevtheblue said:
I know he's been made one of the scapegoats, but he was the best attacker for me for City on Saturday. Not saying much because on one on one's he was dusted most of the time by James, but he also got in behind and his movement was causing them a few problems. For Raz i don't have worries like others do tbfh, it's taking him ages to recover his form but for large parts early on in the season he was great. Even Liverpool away, he was fantastic and caned both TAA and Gomez (i think it was him?). The biggest problem is he's off with England now, and we know what they do for a players form. Ideally a long break and a good pre-season would have done nicely for him.
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I have no doubt he can regain some form so that he can actually get past the occasional defender and run in behind. My worry is that in the majority of games, there is no "behind" to run into. Games against Liverpool and United are the exception not the norm. And even when there is space, what can he do with it? He usually just falls over. His shooting is poor and his vision and passing not much better.
 
Gabriel said:
Excellent description. Were I him, I wouldn’t sign a new contract unless I had assurances that we were going to play more expansively. If our summer signings mean more of the same style of football, then his deficiencies are only going to be more evident and his playing time reduced further.
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It's the opposition that determines our style of play
 
Chippy_boy said:
I have no doubt he can regain some form so that he can actually get past the occasional defender and run in behind. My worry is that in the majority of games, there is no "behind" to run into. Games against Liverpool and United are the exception not the norm. And even when there is space, what can he do with it? He usually just falls over. His shooting is poor and his vision and passing not much better.
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Madness then, that he has managed to score and assist so many goals since Pep came? His speciality under Pep has been the far post finish or coming in and getting tap ins (occasionally scoring the curler into the far post). We don't play the same way or have that pace we used to, so he's going to have to adapt.
 
shevtheblue said:
We don't play the same way or have that pace we used to, so he's going to have to adapt.
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Exactly. But seriously can you see him "adapting" to having a brilliant first touch? Or adapting to not falling on his arse every time he gets into the box? I don't.

In terms of our attacking line up, I'd start Foden (obviously) Jesus, Mahrez, Silva and Torres ahead of him. And KDB or Gundogan if we want to play them upfront. And yet he gets the captain's armband and (allegedly) wants £300k a week? Nah, not worth it.
 
Chippy_boy said:
Exactly. But seriously can you see him "adapting" to having a brilliant first touch? Or adapting to not falling on his arse every time he gets into the box? I don't.

In terms of our attacking line up, I'd start Foden (obviously) Jesus, Mahrez, Silva and Torres ahead of him. And KDB or Gundogan if we want to play them upfront. And yet he gets the captain's armband and (allegedly) wants £300k a week? Nah, not worth it.
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I don't think he has a bad touch but he has always had an issue with decision making. But it's proven that if he works on that with someone (Arteta) he is able to improve on it, and actually become one of the best players in the league.
 
shevtheblue said:
I don't think he has a bad touch but he has always had an issue with decision making. But it's proven that if he works on that with someone (Arteta) he is able to improve on it, and actually become one of the best players in the league.
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The ball positively bounces off him mate. And personally, I don't think you can teach decision-making as such. OK you can train someone about where to run to in order to get tap-ins (as clearly Pep managed to do with him last season) but the instant decision-making, "do I shoot or do I square it" type split second decisions? He's fucking useless at that and I can't see how you can coach that. You either "see" the game in an instant and make the right decisions, or you don't. IMO.
 
Chippy_boy said:
The ball positively bounces off him mate. And personally, I don't think you can teach decision-making as such. OK you can train someone about where to run to in order to get tap-ins (as clearly Pep managed to do with him last season) but the instant decision-making, "do I shoot or do I square it" type split second decisions? He's fucking useless at that and I can't see how you can coach that. You either "see" the game in an instant and make the right decisions, or you don't. IMO.
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He never seems at ease on the ball,no composure or silkiness,its all very frantic and erratic,everything except his pace looks awkward,which leads to the poor control and technique - his passing could be much better but his actual weight of pass is pretty atrocious.
 
FantasyIreland said:
He never seems at ease on the ball,no composure or silkiness,its all very frantic and erratic,everything except his pace looks awkward,which leads to the poor control and technique - his passing could be much better but his actual weight of pass is pretty atrocious.
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I still have a vision in my head of him and Sane through on goal, pretty much 2 on 1 against the oppositions goalkeeper. (Sadly I cannot remember which game it was). Anyway as Sterling gets closer to the keeper and the keeper starts to commit himself, all Sterling has to do is pass it into Sane's path for a tap into an open goal. So he strokes it forward, way too far in front of Sane and with way too much pace on it and the ball runs out for a goal kick. Sane stands there and looks at him with a like "what the fucking hell was that" written on his face.

EDIT: Clearly I remembered it slightly wrong, but I found a clip of said incident:

 
Chippy_boy said:
I still have a vision in my head of him and Sane through on goal, pretty much 2 on 1 against the oppositions goalkeeper. (Sadly I cannot remember which game it was). Anyway as Sterling gets closer to the keeper and the keeper starts to commit himself, all Sterling has to do is pass it into Sane's path for a tap into an open goal. So he strokes it forward, way too far in front of Sane and with way too much pace on it and the ball runs out for a goal kick. Sane stands there and looks at him with a like "what the fucking hell was that" written on his face.

EDIT: Clearly I remembered it slightly wrong, but I found a clip of said incident:

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Its situations like the above,which happen all too frequently,that will never see him as the player he promised to be a couple of seasons back.I'm as disappointed as anyone as i genuinely believed we had a player who would sit nicely in the top tier of world football.
 
Chippy_boy said:
The ball positively bounces off him mate. And personally, I don't think you can teach decision-making as such. OK you can train someone about where to run to in order to get tap-ins (as clearly Pep managed to do with him last season) but the instant decision-making, "do I shoot or do I square it" type split second decisions? He's fucking useless at that and I can't see how you can coach that. You either "see" the game in an instant and make the right decisions, or you don't. IMO.
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First touch like a trampoline. What has happened to him.
 
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