Official: Raheem Sterling Signs On 5 Year Deal

[Le Havre Oswald]

I think Sterling is rapidly going to become as good for City as Hazard is for Chelsea. He is FOUR YEARS younger. I hold my hands up that 3 years ago when I saw him, I never believed he would be so good. I thought he would be another Walcott, Lennon, Oxface type player, but he is way smarter than that. He is already able to interact with David Silva, & actually be the one who creates the most danger at the end of it.

We have hit the jackpot with this.

Ye I'm buzzing

 

[CitizenTID]

I think Sterling is rapidly going to become as good for City as Hazard is for Chelsea. He is FOUR YEARS younger. I hold my hands up that 3 years ago when I saw him, I never believed he would be so good. I thought he would be another Walcott, Lennon, Oxface type player, but he is way smarter than that. He is already able to interact with David Silva, & actually be the one who creates the most danger at the end of it.

We have hit the jackpot with this.

Walcott is a good player when he's fit. I certainly wouldn't put him in the same bracket as Lennon and Oxlade.

 

[Neville Kneville]

Walcott is a good player when he's fit. I certainly wouldn't put him in the same bracket as Lennon and Oxlade.

Well tbf those two probably don't deserve Lennoning. But you know what I mean. We get all these 'wonderkids' at rags, Arse etc, & they're fast & have a few tricks, score the occasional worldie, but there is always that undercurrent of dumbness about them. When they play next to real talent, you can see they are struggling to keep up.

Sterling has taken playing alongside Silva, in his stride. He's on it, already.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Please; leave it out with the "SAS" guff. We'll leave that sort of corny cliche to the history lovers at the end of the M62 (not the Leeds end, the other one).

You mean the Hull end? ;-)

 

[CitizenTID]

Well tbf those two probably don't deserve Lennoning. But you know what I mean. We get all these 'wonderkids' at rags, Arse etc, & they're fast & have a few tricks, score the occasional worldie, but there is always that undercurrent of dumbness about them. When they play next to real talent, you can see they are struggling to keep up.

Sterling has taken playing alongside Silva, in his stride. He's on it, already.

Yeah playing with all our players must be a massive buzz for him and should maintain great motivation for him so hopefully he'll have his best season yet with us and go onwards and upwards from there.

I mean he's swapping Lambert for Sergio Agüero haha.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

I'm amazed people are only just realising how awesome a signing this is. Can't think of a better 20 year old on the planet, but then again I'm not a scout so I wouldn't know! To put it in perspective, he's almost the same age as Lopes... yet nobody expects Lopes to be world class already. But Sterling arguably is.

 

[SilverFox2]

Yeah playing with all our players must be a massive buzz for him and should maintain great motivation for him so hopefully he'll have his best season yet with us and go onwards and upwards from there.

I mean he's swapping Lambert for Sergio Agüero haha.

I think that is the problem now for all our opponents.

Apart from how he will link with others this will cause real problems for even the best defences. I really do feel that his direct attacking style in tandem with the existing Aguero world class capability will be a threat that every PL and CL club will have to try to prepare for.

Last seasons inability to make possession pay against the defensive teams must however be overcome otherwise even top teams will feel they can do at least as well as Burnley or Stoke.

 

[CitizenTID]

I think that is the problem now for all our opponents.

Apart from how he will link with others this will cause real problems for even the best defences. I really do feel that his direct attacking style in tandem with the existing Aguero world class capability will be a threat that every PL and CL club will have to try to prepare for.

Last seasons inability to make possession pay against the defensive teams must however be overcome otherwise even top teams will feel they can do at least as well as Burnley or Stoke.

Yeah it's so frustrating when we have a chance to counter against a defensive team and catch them out and we hold the ball up waiting for our players to catch up who should be bursting forward. That's one think I think Manuel needs to drill into them but I don't get the feeling it's in his thoughts to.

Whenever we change style we seem to have a cracking season (Mancini's more attacking mind set when we won the league, Pellegrini's first season), like it takes teams a season to work us out (or we get too used to playing the same way maybe). It looks like we're going for a 4-3-3 which should improve the transition from defence to attack with the 2 wingers dropping back in and then bursting forward. I can see a great season coming up but when Guardiola comes in (which seems to be a goer) I can see a bit of frustration creeping in with a change to an even more possession philosophy. I like the bloke but I'm really wary about Guardiola's style over here, I just see it being harder to break teams down. I'm not convinced Guardiola's style would be as successful over here as a lot would immediately expect. I've not taken note of what Bayern have been like in Bundesliga but I hope he's prepared to adapt from the start as I think it's a given he'll have to in the premier league.

 

[Vienna_70]

Yeah it's so frustrating when we have a chance to counter against a defensive team and catch them out and we hold the ball up waiting for our players to catch up who should be bursting forward. That's one think I think Manuel needs to drill into them but I don't get the feeling it's in his thoughts to.

Whenever we change style we seem to have a cracking season (Mancini's more attacking mind set when we won the league, Pellegrini's first season), like it takes teams a season to work us out (or we get too used to playing the same way maybe). It looks like we're going for a 4-3-3 which should improve the transition from defence to attack with the 2 wingers dropping back in and then bursting forward. I can see a great season coming up but when Guardiola comes in (which seems to be a goer) I can see a bit of frustration creeping in with a change to an even more possession philosophy. I like the bloke but I'm really wary about Guardiola's style over here, I just see it being harder to break teams down. I'm not convinced Guardiola's style would be as successful over here as a lot would immediately expect. I've not taken note of what Bayern have been like in Bundesliga but I hope he's prepared to adapt from the start as I think it's a given he'll have to in the premier league.

Expanding on your first point, there were several occasions last season when Jesús was racing downfield after a corner, but Joe failed to even try to pick him out to start a counter-attack.

We need to exploit Sterling's pace better than we have Navas'.

 

[SilverFox2]

Our attack is the threat to other teams but what about our vulnerability to quick attacks from defensively minded teams ? We lost quite a few points to teams we should have beaten last season.
Has this vulnerability been fixed or will more teams sit deeper in the hopes of emulating say Burnley's results against us ?