#7 | Raheem Sterling - 2020/21 Performances

[BlueTG]

He looks a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders whenever he takes the field at the moment.

 

[BlueBanger]

First of all, it's not two seasons. He was on fire last season until the Gomez Incident around, what, November? Then his for faltered. It happens. Again, Bernardo had a similar if not longer run of bad form yet no one seems to obsess over his wages.

Second, why the fuck is everyone so bothered about footballer's wages? Txiki and soriano aren't going to miss out on getting a player we need in because sterling makes 100k a week more than you are comfortable with. These guys who run the club have proven they know what they're doing with contracts and keeping players for the right amount of time, so why does it offend you so much that sterling's paycheck is more than others?

Also, whether you like it or not, he's one of the most marketable players in the squad which will play into his wages.

He's in a run of bad form that is no longer than many others in the squad have gone through. He gets it in the neck the worst.

I disagree. He had a few( and i mean a few) okay games at the start of last season and has faultered ever since. He's got goals largely thanks to our system and peps positional coaching. Its rather telling that since we shored up at the back raz has been exposed going forward given less abundance of chances for him to waste.

We should be bothered about wages because we have a finite amount available(otherwise we'd sign everyone) and sterling takes a big chunk of that. Now i'm not exactly sure what bernie is earning but i'd assume its not 300k pw like raz and he's not asking for more...plus the whole mendy situation was much more impactful than anything raz has had to deal with.

Lets see how long he's marketable when he keeps stumbling on his own legs and missing sitters. Two seasons and counting now.

Peronsally i wouldnt be surprised if pep has had enough. He'll always back players when asked in interviews(by his own admission) but his actions in benching raz in the important matches is very telling...the same started happening with sergio when he finally came back from injury and look how that has ended up.

 

[MaineDAWG2008]

Hes always in two minds the moment he enters opposition box. Something overcomes his vision or mindset. Think he needs to see one of those sports psychiatrists. To overcome this mental block.

Natural strikers have this instinct, know keepers position and place ball around the keepers weak spots.

Raheem thinks and thinks, and sometimes cowards out of situations. Like u saw with the Jesus goal V Leicester ? Just passed it to Jesus whereby he was in a much better position to finish it.

 

[Jazzman]

Have you all forgotten how Gündogan was criticized before he became Mr. Whippy. Raheem will come back stronger. Be patient.

 

[toffee balls]

Two things we need to know about Raheem :

1) He won’t change
2) He will be back

 

[ctwrd]

The chances he’s had in the last two games where he’s through on goal and instead of shooting he slows down and ends up in front of the ball and has to try and find a teammate who is now crowded out is not a new thing. He has always done that and I can’t see it changing.
His best form has involved movement into the box to be in the right place at the right time. I suspect that has come through peps coaching.
When he receives the ball he often slows it down and comes back. He has less guile than say bernardo and mahrez and less ability to beat a man than foden.
His form is poor and i can’t see that lasting. He will return to previous form.
However, what do we want with our squad?
With mahrez, Bernardo, foden and Torres out wide, Jesus can play there too we are well stocked.
We need cash to fund a CF.
Sell.
On another note, it’s sad that it has taken 12 months of poor form to be permitted to suggest that we could sell sterling to fund other players. Some of us have suggested this for some time (not just on the back of a run of poor form) but were wrongly accused of either being somehow unfairly picking on sterling or wumming.
It’s been bizarre the militant defence of sterling exonerating him from any criticism and abusing anyone that does from some.

 

[Saddleworth2]

He's had 3 brilliant seasons with us, from 2018 to last season. But even last season you could start to see some signs that he wasn't maintaining the same levels as we know he's capable of. And as others have said, we knew he had his weaknesses but these were obscured by his general briliance in the 2017/18 & 2018/19 seasons. But that brilliance hasn't been apparent for quite some time now and his weaknesses have been cruelly laid bare all season. I can't answer the question of why his form has fallen off a cliff and maybe even he or Pep can't. I know I've gone through periods at work where circumstances or the environment haven't been right and the only solution is to move away, either internally or leave completely and just get a change of scenery.

Let's compare and contrast Raheem Sterling to Yaya Toure, who had possibly the finest single season I've ever seen from a City player in over 50 years of watching them. And then, for whatever reason, his form fell off a cliff and it never looked like he would recapture that form. We all hoped we'd see the 2013/14 Yaya again but we only ever saw the briefest flashes and after a while we realised we were never going to see that Yaya again and didn't renew his contract. We all pretty well agreed that was the right decision. Same with Zaba, when we could see his decline and with Aguero now.

The difference wih Sterling is that he's not at the end of his career but should be at the peak so there's wildly differing views on what we should do. The issue about his pay is that it's more than most others are on, bar KDB, and we have to decide whether we could spend that money better. For an in-form Sterling the answer to that is no, we can't do better but the question is whether we'll see the Sterling we saw in 2018 and 2019 again.

But if this is really him playing for a new contract, then he's hardly making it a difficult decision is he?

I wonder what level of performance management he gets. By that, I mean does he get feedback on his performance n a regular basis like the majority of the working population do. If he is getting truthful feedback then he has a choice to make 1) set a timescale for improvement and then negotiate a new contract when he reaches that level 2) negotiate a new contract based on current performance 3) leave. If the Club is being honest with him then it should be in the driving seat for any of these options.

 

[St.Pauli support]

He looks a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders whenever he takes the field at the moment.

Yes, but we don't know why.
And we don't know if Raheem knows why, and then Pep.
We should expect there are internal debates how to improve his difficult situation.
Last night he found himself on the bench and watched our new 20yo hero who scored the winners in both legs of our most important match of the last years. He didn't even feel part of the party as he had nothing to celebrate. It's a nightmare for Raz right now.

The reason for a very controversial debate on here IMO has to do with the cliff his performance has fallen off. He was top notch and now fails to do simple and basic things with the ball, it actually hurts watching.

It tells me he is afraid to fail - and consequently fails.

We won't get any information about Raheem's situation and surely it's exactly right to keep it internal, whatever it is.

I will look for any new contract offers for Raheem as an indication what Pep and the club expect about his future.
I hope he finds his old strengths asap and gets his monkey off his back like City did last night about CL QFs.

 

[117 M34]

Don't understand the talk of letting him go. He isn't playing well at the minute but if he left we would regret it. He will hit form again before the end of the season and will play a big part in the run in.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

Yes, but we don't know why.
And we don't know if Raheem knows why, and then Pep.
We should expect there are internal debates how to improve his difficult situation.
Last night he found himself on the bench and watched our new 20yo hero who scored the winners in both legs of our most important match of the last years. He didn't even feel part of the party as he had nothing to celebrate. It's a nightmare for Raz right now.

The reason for a very controversial debate on here IMO has to do with the cliff his performance has fallen off. He was top notch and now fails to do simple and basic things with the ball, it actually hurts watching.

It tells me he is afraid to fail - and consequently fails.

We won't get any information about Raheem's situation and surely it's exactly right to keep it internal, whatever it is.

I will look for any new contract offers for Raheem as an indication what Pep and the club expect about his future.
I hope he finds his old strengths asap and gets his monkey off his back like City did last night about CL QFs.

Can't argue with any of that.