It seems to be coalescing into received opinion that he's shit and doesn't score, despite being our second highest goal scorer during a run that even under Pellers we darent dream of. He's not clinical, but neither was Silva, and he doesn't have some of the qualities other players have, but he clearly has many that Bernie and Kev don't. To judge from some people here he's shit and should never play again, but I don't think people realise the job he does in pinning defenders back, making space for others, and scoring goals. I'm just glad they're not making the team selections.
The comparison is sadly lacking, because Bernie and KDB are balls out, bust a lung, midfielders who CREATE and also score a few, not out and out attackers who score two kinds of goals:
A - A bundled tap in at the far post, sometimes barely making into the goal when it is much harder to miss, and
B - Dribble in from the left, beat a man, (beat another, and another, and maybe even another,) and put the ball in the bottom corner to the keepers left.
He is best at exploiting the space in behind the right back and right centre back with outside in runs, and he’s good at this because we have players who can put the ball on a sixpence for him when he makes that run.
When his game is relying on picking the ball up out wide left on the touchline, his ONLY serious contribution from there is often the quick 1-2 with our left back or left midfielder, as he scurries in behind. Very rarely, he takes the player on and beats him to the outside, because he has no left foot, so the defender knows to show him that way.
Because teams play narrow against us to smother the space, his preferred move (cutting inside on his right foot) is the proverbial “running down a blind alley” and almost always without any serious control of the ball. Silky, he is not!
For me, he has no first touch. However, even more damning, he has no FINAL TOUCH! It is THAT that makes or breaks a forward!
He plays with his head UP when he’s not on the ball, but his lack of ball control means he plays with his head DOWN when he has the ball.
REAL ballers KNOW where the ball is when they’re running with it...that’s because it is under their control! By definition, when it’s “under control”, you don’t have to look at it every second.
Sterling simply lacks basic control of the ball while on the run. Maybe it’s mechanics, maybe he has got away with it this long because of other attributes, but in a team where the full backs and even the keeper have better ball control than the (often) Captain and one of the main strikers, that’s a problem. I won’t even compare him to Mahrez or Bernardo, or even Foden for that matter, because it would be embarrassing to Raheem to do so.
