daztrueblue91
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 4 Jun 2009
- Messages
- 4,064
That is all true. And there are few alternatives. But the Sterling I saw for England was not the Sterling who scored 18 times and had 11 assists in 33 league games. Yes Rashford and Lingard were no better, but you have to accept that Sterling was not at his best....probably because of the hostility that he faces.
It was very noticeable that half way through the competition the media seemed to start a Sterling offensive talking him up instead of down. perhaps the England staff had a word, or perhaps they realised the nation would not accept such criticism
But Rashford is the exact same player we see at United. The one who is a squad player, the one who Jose clearly doesn’t trust, the one who can beat a man but has little end product aside from the odd wonder strike.
The campaign against Sterling included praising Rashford, in an attempt to oust Raz from the side, so much that he was made out to be a Messi/Maradona hybrid.
I actually felt sorry for Rashford yesterday because people were expecting far too much from him. Nothing he has produced so far suggests that he’d be in with a chance of the Golden Boot if he’d have started every game like Hoddle claimed. But people lap it up. They see a good 10 minute cameo against Costa Rica and ignore the other 80 minutes of average play.
The penny actually dropped, for some in the pub, after Sterling went off that we are a poorer side without him. The same happened against Colombia as well.
I said at the time that the decision would kill us and we’ll revert to long ball and invite more pressure. A few people agreed but most disagreed and slagged Sterling. Needless to say by the 90th min those people were then slagging Rashford and calling the side shit.