Raheem Sterling - 2017/18 performances

[01cravend]

Fundamentally there was an issue with England creating any chances from open play, probably stemming from no midfield creatively.

No attacking player is going to thrive in a system that starves its attack, this isnt due to one player not performing, the tactics were wrong and Sterling playing like Messi wouldnt have changed it

I mean Messi absolutely would have changed it as he is a playmaker, Sterling is not(not a criticism). Southgate's initial tactic was playing Sterling at second striker but then we had no link between midfield and attack so then he played Kane there instead and we lumped the ball up to him in the hope that Sterling would get on the end of his flicks. Why Southgate didn't try something different in either of the Belgium games shows how 1 dimensional and generally clueless he is, but he's a nice bloke. Sterling was a sacrificial lamb for pointless ball retention, if we'd played to our attackers strengths we'd seen a better world cup from all of them and we'd have been a better team for it.

 

[Uptop]

I mean Messi absolutely would have changed it as he is a playmaker, Sterling is not(not a criticism). Southgate's initial tactic was playing Sterling at second striker but then we had no link between midfield and attack so then he played Kane there instead and we lumped the ball up to him in the hope that Sterling would get on the end of his flicks. Why Southgate didn't try something different in either of the Belgium games shows how 1 dimensional and generally clueless he is, but he's a nice bloke. Sterling was a sacrificial lamb for pointless ball retention, if we'd played to our attackers strengths we'd seen a better world cup from all of them and we'd have been a better team for it.

That is true, was actually meaning it as a figure of speech haha, say Ronaldo then!

Fully agree about Southgate, especially in the 3rd place game, there was nothing to lose and still couldnt change things when nothing was working.

 

[blueballs84]

I thought overall they played well, nothing special but each one of them to a man, ran their bollocks off and gave everything they had.

I don't think any of them had a poor performance overall.

Alli was ver poor in my opinion. Dier also looked out of his depth when he played

 

[blueballs84]

Fundamentally there was an issue with England creating any chances from open play, probably stemming from no midfield creatively.

No attacking player is going to thrive in a system that starves its attack, this isnt due to one player not performing, the tactics were wrong and Sterling playing like Messi wouldnt have changed it

Problem is that Alli and Lingard are not proper midfielders. They are the sort of players you play just off the back of a striker or potentially on the wing. They aren't natural creators. We basically played with 4 forwards, 4 defenders (if you include the defensive midfielder) and our 2 winfbacks. It's no surprise that most of our creative threat came from the winfbacks.

 

[Rolee]

Alli was ver poor in my opinion. Dier also looked out of his depth when he played

I thought Alli was poor in the first couple of games, improved as he went on.

Only really Stones, Maguire and Trippier were good overall, Pickford decent, the rest as I say, I think average, some good games, some not so good.

In general play I actually think Kane was poor but he tucked away the chances he got, that's what he's there for so you've to give him credit for that.

There's no grounds to be really critical of anyone's overall performance though and certainly not Sterling's.

 

[Fiftyyearsandcounting]

Sterling puts it on a plate for Kane who then misses the target, should have scored. Stats then claim Sterling -No assists, not his fault if Golden Balls fails to score.
Same with De Bruyne against Belgium, he puts two great passes to Lukaka who fluff them both so no assists.
However, look at the "Chances creates" and RH comes out on top.

 

[Chris-MCFC-94]

I’m a bit late here I think

Sterling is an incredible player however I have some issues with him at the same time

As a fan, I get to see a lot more than he does, but sometimes I feel he really needs to offer more movement, so many times if he made a run he’s 1-1.

100% needs to work on both his finishing and final ball, I’m well aware of his goal tally but it could easily be double this if he hit the back of the net.

I really hope he gets his technical ability down

He has Mahrez to compete with, he should be tested and I think this will bring the best out of him.