Sterling's in a unique position too in that he'll only escape criticism if he plays excellently, whereas others would need to have a real stinker before they were particularly targeted.
Maguire, Walker, Alli, Lingard and Young all made errors/misplays throughout the night but their performances were generally ranging from ok to not awful and they've not been crucified over it. Which is how it should be in fairness and we should have a positive slant on things.
But the real kicker right now is that it's NOT the media lining up to criticise Sterling. Newspapers and pundits alike have been mostly sympathetic and barring the odd few not many have called for him to be dropped. Even the normally quick to make a story out of it Metro paper rated him as having flashes of good moments. Which is better than harsh criticism.
The people calling for him to be dropped are the fans. The man in the pub. Your United supporting colleague. The online community. The people naive enough to have been brainwashed by the media campaign against him and not realise it. Many of the same people who think The Sun took it too far are the same people demanding for Rashford after 5 minutes.
I often mention Jesus alongside Sterling, because it's the people that think all Jesus does is run around and score tap ins tend to think the only thing Sterling does is fall over and miss tap ins. I know I'll get 100 quotes telling me I'm an idiot solely for this next comment, but Pogba is a similarly picked on player and people tend to eat it up.
Sterling's going to have to pull a Rocky IV moment (in Russia no less) before the fans get on side. If he has a 7/10 game the pundits will be gentle but the fans will crucify him nonetheless. And he'd need an 9/10 game before he gets any praise.
Sometimes I wonder if his life would be easier if were dropped, but they'd probably blame him for not replicating his club form.
tl;dr The media have clearly backed off, it's the fans that are the problem.
He did plenty but the show pony neymar doesn't pass to him half the time,tries to win the game on his own
Willian and especially Coutinho too.