#7 | Raheem Sterling - 2020/21 Performances

[BillyShears]

LOL. That'll be when he's in Madrid.

Yes because that’s how football works. Sterling is shit, can’t do the basics, is on a contract he’s not worth, but Madrid will swoop in and sign him for loads of money they don’t have.

All you’re doing here is reinforcing my initial response to you. Raz is going nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. You can hope wish dream but it isn’t happening. Sorry.

 

[HelloCity]

This sums up the whole blind faith "I'm sure he'll come good again" defence of Sterling. What he did last season, or the seasons before, has little bearing on what he's doing now. Otherwise we'd still be playing Franny Lee.

He's the second highest paid player in the squad but he seemingly lacks or can't apply the technical skills that a 10 year old in the Academy is expected to possess and apply, such as controlling a ball when standing still and running. He struggles against the better teams and usually has, even in his better periods. His whole professional skill set is lacking at the moment.

He can't get a shot on target from more than 8 yards. He lacks the composure and confidence to take a shot quickly or on the run. You know that every time he carves out a chance for himself, he's going to stop and check back. Sometimes he gets away with it but more often he messes up. He can't do what Foden did on Tuesday, which is accelerate and beat two men.

And this has been going on all this season and most of last. Yes he got 20 goals but it should have been 30. We've known his weaknesses for a while but we've overlooked them because he's usually done enough to warrant that. But he's not doing enough now and hasn't been for a while. He had a semi-decent game in thr League Cup semi-final and that's about it. That might be OK if we were paying him £70k a week but he's a senior member of the squad and supposed to be a leader, yet he's serving up one utter dross performance after another. He's contributing zilch and we're playing with 10 men when he starts.

This situation reminds me of Negredo, who was on fire for half a season then had his injury, plus his alleged personal issues, and we never saw anything like that from him after.

He's simply a luxury we can't afford and if I was Txiki Begiristain I'd be looking to get better value for money. I've even said that I reckon his head is somewhere else, as this is far too like his final season at Liverpool. I reckon he's made up his mind to move on and I think a change of scenery might do him good.

How come Bernardo didn’t get this same kind of commentary when he was crap for 14 months?

 

[WickyWain]

It's mad really, he's had a poor season by his standards and yet he's still on 9 league goals and 6 assists. Can't wait for him to find his best form again and silence the haters once more.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Yes because that’s how football works. Sterling is shit, can’t do the basics, is on a contract he’s not worth, but Madrid will swoop in and sign him for loads of money they don’t have.

All you’re doing here is reinforcing my initial response to you. Raz is going nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. You can hope wish dream but it isn’t happening. Sorry.

The Ibiza sun is getting to you Ahsan. This is a repeat of his 2014/15 final season at Liverpool, where he suddenly turned to shit. All players have bad patches, including even KDB & Aguero. But Sterling's head has gone completely and you just don't want to see it.

 

[BillyShears]

The Ibiza sun is getting to you Ahsan. This is a repeat of his 2014/15 final season at Liverpool, where he suddenly turned to shit. All players have bad patches, including even KDB & Aguero. But Sterling's head has gone completely and you just don't want to see it.

As I said you crack on. Sterling is going nowhere. You may as well be writing the earth is flat.

 

[Kippax77]

How come Bernardo didn’t get this same kind of commentary when he was crap for 14 months?

Probably cos he's got better ball control and will run himself into the ground for the cause.
Once he got over the "media slur" of being accused of being racist, you knew you would get a very good player back.
We don't even know why Sterling as turned crap

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I don’t think Sterling’s general play is that much different to what it was last season.

Many games last season were consistently littered with the poor play we’re seeing this season from him. However, last season he was scoring goals, whereas this season he hasn’t scored as many. Despite last season being his best goal scoring season, I thought his general play was worse than it had been in the two seasons previous.

This isn’t a form thing because form is how someone is playing over 6 or 12 games or so; it’s not a ‘this season’ thing because his general play was poor for long stretches last season; it’s also not a ‘Gomez incident at England’ thing because these poor performances started back at Norwich last August.

It’s hard to point out what it is really...

Has he relaxed after two brilliant seasons and can’t get himself back up to those levels because the hunger has gone?
Have poor performances over two seasons made him lose confidence which is further exacerbated through not scoring much this season?
Were 2017-2019 the peak years of his career and he’ll never get back up there again (not all athletes are good throughout their careers, some have small windows where they’re brilliant surrounded by very average rest of their careers)?
Is he suffering from not having the exact set-up and faster style we had with peak Fernandinho-DSilva-deBruyne-Sané-Agüero getting the best out of him (while some of those players are still here now, and he’s surrounded by other good players, they might not suit Sterling as a unit or individually)?
Has he not handled the pressure of becoming one of the major players at the club as many of our leaders have left (Zaba Yaya Kompany DSilva have all left recently with Agüero and Fernandinho to follow), was Sterling comfortable being one of the younger non-leaders and instead of growing into a leader himself, he’s shrunk under the expectation of him to become a leader?
If you’re someone who thinks it is a ‘this season thing’, does the new set-up and style of play this season not suit him (not all players suit different styles of play)?
Is he simply not a good enough player for this new more technical, slower style?
Is it a little bit of all of some of all of these things?

It’s pretty much impossible to say exactly what’s gone/is going on.

It’s a certainty though, he’s not playing well enough to get into our best team. I think Foden has overtaken him as first choice on the left, I think Mahrez has overtaken him for first choice on the right. And until he changes his quality levels, he’s one of the squad players (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing at a club like City, but it is when you’re the clubs second highest paid player and supposed to be one of the club’s leaders).

That’s very disheartening because after the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, I thought he could have developed into a great player. I feel a bit gutted that he hasn’t... yet (but will he?).

 

[HelloCity]

Probably cos he's got better ball control and will run himself into the ground for the cause.
Once he got over the "media slur" of being accused of being racist, you knew you would get a very good player back.
We don't even know why Sterling as turned crap

Sterling has faced more media abuse than our entire playing squad combined.

 

[oldius]

He has been an excellent player for us but is in very poor form. At the moment, he probably shouldn't feature but a player like him will normally come good unless he is no longer happy at the club, which I doubt. He is a fighter and has had to battle for years, especially against media prejudice and the abuse of former club fans. I hope he gets back to his best because at that level, he is a huge asset for us.

 

[LongsightM13]

Probably cos he's got better ball control and will run himself into the ground for the cause.
Once he got over the "media slur" of being accused of being racist, you knew you would get a very good player back.
We don't even know why Sterling as turned crap

Because Pep started playing him in midfield again instead of stuck out on the right wing as he was for the previous year