#7 | Raheem Sterling - 2021/22 Performances

[Damanino]

only chance for him at city if Kane arrives and he plays off of him. but not from left a Grealish will mainly play from left imo. thats where he was the best for Villa and more creative than Sterling in going past people or more likely to make a good cross than Sterling who often just runs into defender.

still hard to work out where all of Foden, Sterling, Grealish fit in same eleven with Mahrez imo expecting to start a lot of games too. given Mahrez is 30 years old and has 2 years on his contract, i would seriously start thinking of moving him out next summer instead of a new long contract to keep him here until age 34 and then nobody will be able to afford his salary if we want to sell later on.

all this of course if we renew Sterling's contract which seemingly is the plan so far but he needs to up his form tho, because if he doesnt Pep will rotate him out more and more and he will not like to be benched. best case scenario is he finds his old form and be a regular, any other option is bad for the team and sooner or later bad for the dressing room if he starts sulking for game time (after he signs a new very expensive contract).

 

[wolviedinho]

I quite like Mansour,thank you!

Ha nicely played

 

[andyhinch]

Same problems beating a man and running into defenders. He needs a good shake.

Needs to offload faster, not having a number 9 doesn’t help.

 

[jimmygrimblesboots]

Didnt show his England form , but how did that Spuds full back not get booked and why involve Lloris , Taylor just game the Spuds player permission to kick Sterling at every opportunity , he was getting zero protection from Taylor , one of many weird decisions form Mr.Alty.

 

[mosssideblue]

Needs to find his form pronto as he is going to find it difficult to get starts ahead of Jack, Phil, Jesus and Mahrez

 

[Shaffer92]

he’s already proven himself. Didn’t actually think he was that bad today and it’s also only the first game after 5 weeks of no football

the criticism of Sterling on here is ridiculous.

Why would you give a guy a new contract who's already on close to 300K PW who hasn't performed at a world class level consistently since 17/18... he was decent in 18/19 but since then it has been a nose dive. Phil could have taken his spot with his eyes closed.. not to mention I used to absolutely rave about how hard he worked defensively, where the hell has that gone? Jogging back without a care in the world.

 

[Shaffer92]

A couple of firm tackle/fouls and that was him done.

spot on. Raz has ALWAYS struggled vs fast/physical fullbacks

 

[Stelea]

Crap today and reverted back to his City form of the previous 18 months.
Slows the play down, runs into opponents, gives the ball away and a shot as weak as piss
Also always in Grealish’s way

 

[Tevez City]

Can't wait for Kane's arrival, just to hear the new excuses people will make for Raheem.

 

[mosssideblue]

Can't wait for Kane's arrival, just to hear the new excuses people will make for Raheem.

They always find one :)

 

[daztrueblue91]

He needs to go back to being on the periphery of the game and finishing moves off, rather than trying to be at the centre of the attack.

If you go back the the Euros, his goals came from his movement in the box and finishing off team moves. I don’t recall him making any decent runs into the box yesterday.

Whenever he had the ball it was to his feet with an expectation that he could make something happen.

The sooner he stops thinking he’s Hazard or Neymar and goes back to playing his natural game, City will be better off.

 

[mcfcbill91]

Really is a significant concern now, especially with two years remaining on his contract. Completely ineffectual yesterday, regardless of Taylor's assistance for Tanganga. Once he was off we created two chances almost immediately down that side.

Constantly slowed play down whenever he received the ball and almost a complete lack of care with passing too. Tone was set with some awful close control and losing the ball 10 seconds into the game. Easily dispossessed leading to two counters in the first half.

Huge improvement needed and quickly.

 

[5 Hit Gibbon]

I don't want to hate on Sterling but I can't remember his last really good game for City. Was it maybe Liverpool, which was in Feb?

He is a really good player as we saw with his England performances in the Euro's & we have seen it here, but not recently. Not sure if it is how he is being asked to play here or what, but he did very little of note yesterday.

 

[TonyM]

If he stays then I hope he moves to right back. That's the furthest place from the left flank right? Thanks.

 

[paulsimpson]

Raz has the ability to bounce back. Try to stay away from the distraction of politics, do what he did during the Euros and find his man Kane and we will all be happy .

 

[FromPollockToSilva]

He needs to go back to being on the periphery of the game and finishing moves off, rather than trying to be at the centre of the attack.

If you go back the the Euros, his goals came from his movement in the box and finishing off team moves. I don’t recall him making any decent runs into the box yesterday.

Whenever he had the ball it was to his feet with an expectation that he could make something happen.

The sooner he stops thinking he’s Hazard or Neymar and goes back to playing his natural game, City will be better off.

I agree with your general thrust here, but not the part in bold. It's not Sterling's decision what role he plays in this team, it's Pep's.

 

[DruntBlunt]

Could we sell him to England?

 

[Lavinda Past]

We've seen Raheem go from being 'out of sorts' for City last season, to being a star man at the Euros.
He's arrived back at City with a similar look to that of last season. His body language was poor on Sunday, and he didn't look particularly happy at any point of the TV coverage.

Southgate clearly got the best out of Raheem over the summer, despite being a bang average coach.

I can only assume that this was in the main down to effective man-management. As such, I can't help but think that any decline in his performance is down to a deteriorating relationship with Pep Guardiola.

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

I’d like to see him on the right again

 

[mosssideblue]

We've seen Raheem go from being 'out of sorts' for City last season, to being a star man at the Euros.
He's arrived back at City with a similar look to that of last season. His body language was poor on Sunday, and he didn't look particularly happy at any point of the TV coverage.

Southgate clearly got the best out of Raheem over the summer, despite being a bang average coach.

I can only assume that this was in the main down to effective man-management. As such, I can't help but think that any decline in his performance is down to a deteriorating relationship with Pep Guardiola.

I think it is more to do with what both managers want from Sterling and also the nature of international football, rather than anything personal.

I do agree, he did look like he had lost his last fiver whilst being interviewed and, that might be realising there are better technical players threatening his game time.