#7 | Raheem Sterling - 2020/21 Performances

[EdersonsSmiley]

How on earth was my post wumming?

Because on what basis can you say a 26 year old footballer is essentially finished and will never recover his form?

You cannot make that argument in good faith.

 

[mosssideblue]

Because on what basis can you say a 26 year old footballer is essentially finished and will never recover his form?

You cannot make that argument in good faith.

Read the post I was responding to for context.

 

[EdersonsSmiley]

Read back over this thread over the months. Nobody is talking about his goal scoring. Whether he’s banging them in or not scoring at all, that’s not the issue. It’s every other aspect of his game that everyone is talking about.

Why does any aspect of his game matter if he's the top scorer in England. Good performances don't win games on their own, goals win games and Sterling scores an awful lot of goals.

Are you saying you would rather have a winger who has a better first touch and dribbling technique who only scores 5 goals a season?

It's like complaining about Dias or Stones technique or whatever, I couldn't care less as long as they keep the ball out of our net.

 

[mccity]

Over 150 goals and assists for us but he’s just a player anybody can replace, apparently.

He was our best goal scorer once the season restarted last campaign, and in all competitions.

Only scores tap ins, except for when he bends a free kick into the top corner, for example.

Has been almost ever present in our most successful side ever.

He can’t take a penalty, and he’s not playing to his capabilities this season absolutely. But people are starting to rewrite history that he’s been utter shite for 2 years. People will always have it in for Sterling, as they have proven consistently for the last 6 years.

It’s like the “he’s my little brother so you can’t pick on him but I can” mentality.

Sterling divides opinion because he's a difficult player to understand.

I'd put Rodri, Jesus, Walker, and Zinchenko in similar contexts. Gundogan was formerly misunderstood too.

All these players are exceedingly good with the intangible stuff. For starters, they're all brilliant as far as off the ball movement is concerned. They're also very good at doing the safe stuff that Pep likes. Rodri reads and controls the game brilliantly. Walker is positionally excellent (barring brainfarts) in defence. Zinchenko has excellent awareness. Jesus opens up space and defends excellently from the front. Sterling stretches defences and exploits space extremely well. There's more too for each of them.

What all of these players don't do, is spectacular things with the ball. Nor do they often to stuff that passes the famed 'eye test'. Rodri doesn't play 20 throughballs a match nor does he fly into tackles. Walker is limited in possession. Zinchenko doesn't make great attacking plays nor make divine defensive interventions. Jesus doesn't score every chance or make 100 runs into the box at every opportunity. Sterling takes this to the next level, as he doesn't look conventional at all, failing the 'eye test' at every opportunity almost. Gundogan's only getting his deserved praise because he's more aggressive in the tackle and scoring more (the stuff that's easier to see), but a lot of his other abstract elements have always been there. @Dax777 has spent the best part of three seasons telling everyone Gundogan is the smartest midfield defensive player in the team for a reason.

Assuming a team has 50% possession and that keeper involvements are negligible, that means that on average every outfield player has about 5% of the game in possession. That means they have about 95% of the game without the ball. That's the bulk of the footballing iceberg. Pep loves the players that give him the 95% of the game to the level he loves. It's why he was so persistent with the aforementioned players when everybody wanted them sold/dropped, and why he continues to play them now. It's this (lack of) element that's been what's been keeping Foden out for so long, but now he's starting to understand it he's flourishing.


Not that the other 5% doesn't matter, nor that the criticisms of these players are invalid. Sterling could be doing more with the ball for example; he'd say the same! But these criticisms are being prioritised over other less obviously visible elements that are clearly being either misunderstood or wilfully ignored, when to anyone who's taken a moment to try and understand Pep's methods will realise that they are in fact the most important part of the whole shebang.

 

[samarasra]

I genuinely don't think he's doing anything special,and nothing half the right wingers in the league couldn't do.

Not "special" at the moment by the high standards he has set for himself. However he is still contributing to a team that has climbed from 13th and is currently top of the table. He has played left, right and centre so far this season. What do you consider "special " to be ?

 

[FantasyIreland]

Sterling divides opinion because he's a difficult player to understand.

I'd put Rodri, Jesus, Walker, and Zinchenko in similar contexts. Gundogan was formerly misunderstood too.

All these players are exceedingly good with the intangible stuff. For starters, they're all brilliant as far as off the ball movement is concerned. They're also very good at doing the safe stuff that Pep likes. Rodri reads the game brilliantly. Walker is positionally excellent (barring brainfarts) in defence. Zinchenko has excellent awareness. Jesus opens up space. Sterling stretches defences. There's more too.

What all of these players don't do, is spectacular things with the ball. Nor do they often to stuff that passes the famed 'eye test'. Rodri doesn't play 20 throughballs a match nor does he fly into tackles. Walker is limited in possession. Zinchenko doesn't make great attacking plays nor make divine defensive interventions. Jesus doesn't score every chance or make 100 runs into the box at every opportunity. Sterling takes this to the next level, as he doesn't look conventional at all, failing the 'eye test' at every opportunity almost. Gundogan's only getting his deserved praise because he's more aggressive in the tackle and scoring more (the stuff that's easier to see), but a lot of his other abstract elements have always been there. @Dax777 has spent the best part of three seasons telling everyone Gundogan is the smartest midfield defensive player in the team for a reason.

Assuming a team has 50% possession and that keeper involvements are negligible, that means that on average every outfield player has about 5% of the game in possession. That means they have about 95% of the game without the ball. That's the bulk of the footballing iceberg. Pep loves the players that give him the 95% of the game to the level he loves. It's why he was so persistent with the aforementioned players when everybody wanted them sold/dropped, and why he continues to play them now. It's this (lack of) element that's been what's been keeping Foden out for so long, but now he's starting to understand it he's flourishing.


Not that the other 5% doesn't matter, nor that the criticisms of these players are invalid. Sterling could be doing more with the ball for example; he'd say the same! But these criticisms are being prioritised over other less obviously visible elements that are clearly being either misunderstood or wilfully ignored, when to anyone who's taken a moment to try and understand Pep's methods will realise that they are in fact the most important part of the whole shebang.

That's cool,but what about the important stuff that makes up 90% of a game? like composure,first touch,holding the ball up/retaining posession,finding a teammate,not running into blind alleys or falling over under the merest of pressure and winning 50/50 challenges occasionally?

Does none of that matter because he runs around alot,largely aimlessly,and gets into a position to score goals every now and again?

 

[FantasyIreland]

Not "special" at the moment by the high standards he has set for himself. However he is still contributing to a team that has climbed from 13th and is currently top of the table. He has played left, right and centre so far this season. What do you consider "special " to be ?

A consistent gamechanger and influencer,someone who justifies 300k a week.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Bernardo was flitted in and out of the team and played all over the park,he never got the same opportunity to be consistent or nail down a position.Unfortunately for the player,Peps love for an out of form Gundogan and the ability of KDB have done him no favours.
By contrast Sterling has been given every chance to recover his best form,and yet 12/18 months later we are still seeing an incredibly frustrating and largely ineffective player.

I'm no fan of mahrez but at least his first touch is sublime and his end product,when he cuts out the selfish shit,is destructive.

I want nothing more than the 24yr old Raheem to return,a player who was fast,direct,unpredictably devastating and hungry.Unfortunately,the amount of times he runs into brick walls,loses the ball,falls over and refuses to fight for most 50/50's makes him more of a liability these days.

We are coming from the same place. I agree his form this season has been the worst since he joined us. I just think that's he's ballsy and a fighter and he'll regain that form. We will see..!

 

[Tugay One Cup]

For now, we don't need an immediate purchase to replace him. On his current form, Just drop him for now and we would be better.

We're top of the league, through to the League Cup final, had a record finish in the Champions League group stage, have won our last eleven games in a row and are unbeaten since November.

If these comments were coming a month or so ago, when we genuinely looked shite as a team, then I'd fully understand.

Due to a pretty dramatic turnaround in performances, we're now, in my eyes, comfortably the best side in England and one of the best on the planet.

At this point, Sterling isn't the problem that you've convinced yourself he is.

 

[FantasyIreland]

We are coming from the same place. I agree his form this season has been the worst since he joined us. I just think that's he's ballsy and a fighter and he'll regain that form. We will see..!

I want that too,the Sterling we had 18months ago and before was awesome.

Can a player peak at 24/25?