Player Topic: Raheem Sterling (2015/16)

[MC ID]

He's 21 next week, and he's already scored 7 goals and set 5 up this season.

What a player he'll be when he's 25, his finishing will have improved, and his maturity too.

He's a gem.

Very true, wonder how he's comparing with others the same age in the prem.

 

[FlemishDuck]

I'm always amazed at the obsession with a transfer prices. There are entire websites like TransferMarkt that list a player's financial history. Is this for fantasy sports or FM gamers? If there's one truth in football now it's that money drives the game. And whether you buy that player from his youth club, first pro team, whatever.... there is going to be a markup on ANY talent. But apparently, there is a "Shrewd Investor's" Trophy given behind closed doors in every pro league....

These thing matter for smaller teams, a lot even, but not for Manchester city, city can buy whoever is available and the fans could just aswell consider that source Unlimited, AND its not like the fans af going to pay that pricetag.

People are now considering wether Sterling was worth that pricetag, but why really. Would they be happier with Sterling if he had only cost 10 million? If so why care about the pricetag? We are fucking loaded here.

The only thing that matters imho is wether Sterling can contribute and can improve. In that regard i have a good feeling with him.

 

[City_Sean]

Very true, wonder how he's comparing with others the same age in the prem.

I read that he's scored and assisted more than both Sanchez and Ronaldo had at a similar age.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

I read that he's scored and assisted more than both Sanchez and Ronaldo had at a similar age.

Here's a good indication:

http://www.theguardian.com/football...m-sterling-score-against-ronaldo-messi-age-20

Don't expect those on here who expect the finished article at 20/21 to pay much attention to these stats:

...A far more interesting exercise is to try to figure out how Sterling compares with other top attacking midfielders/wing forwards when they were 20 – and that requires a broader range of figures than ones with pound signs and rows of zeros after them.

So far in his Premier League career Sterling has scored 18 goals in 95 games (a rate of 0.23 goals per 90 minutes) and 14 assists (0.18 per 90 minutes). This season – during which he has turned 20 – he has seven goals, seven assists and has created 75 chances in 35 games. Those numbers are pretty good. Especially given Liverpool have lost Luis Suárez, been largely without Daniel Sturridge, and have seen Steven Gerrard coming out much the worse from a crunching challenge with Father Time.

In particular those 75 chances created stand out. The season Ronaldo turned 20, he created 49 chances in 33 games for Manchester United, and Messi managed 40 from 28 matches. David Silva registered 40 from 34 matches, Gareth Bale 39 from 23 matches and Theo Walcott 22 from 25 matches. Sterling trumps them all.

Indeed, only Eden Hazard and Mesut Özil posted better chance creation numbers at the same age. And remember, Sterling did this in a Liverpool side that struggled to get past 50 Premier League goals. Last season they scored 101.

Admittedly, Sterling isn’t quite at the very top table when you rank players based on their goals and assists by the age of 20. Lionel Messi stands alone (he was scoring nearly three goals every four games even then) with Hazard and Arjen Robben the next best, albeit in the weaker Ligue 1 and Eredivisie. But Sterling’s numbers either match up, or are better than, everyone else in his position.

The comparisons with Sterling and Ronaldo at 20 are also worth exploring. At that age Ronaldo was not the goalscoring terminator he is now. According to Opta, he had played 64 Premier League games, scoring nine goals (0.2 per 90 minutes) and creating eight assists (0.18 per 90 minutes). Of course these numbers don’t tell you everything. Ronaldo was already an immense talent. He had starred in an FA Cup final and had a decent Euro 2004. But at 20 his raw numbers weren’t any better than Sterling’s. He certainly wasn’t a world beater.

 

[ono]

These thing matter for smaller teams, a lot even, but not for Manchester city, city can buy whoever is available and the fans could just aswell consider that source Unlimited, AND its not like the fans af going to pay that pricetag.

People are now considering wether Sterling was worth that pricetag, but why really. Would they be happier with Sterling if he had only cost 10 million? If so why care about the pricetag? We are fucking loaded here.

The only thing that matters imho is wether Sterling can contribute and can improve. In that regard i have a good feeling with him.

Yes probably, it would indicate that we know what we are doing in the transfer market. Every time a club spends a shed load on a player and he turns out to not be so good, it over inflates the market, and while that might not matter to us right now, there might be a point in time in the future when it does. For example, if we are hit with another bullshit FFP sanction by Uefa, i'd like to think we could still improve the squad with a lesser amount of money available.

I also think people use the price tag to compare the value to the value of other transfers throughout Europe. For example, Martial cost United £58m, if they wanted a wide player, they could have had Konoplyanka on a free.

 

[lancs blue]

Just think we could have got Costa for 25m or even someone like Montero for 10m

And we'd have had one non-HG player too many. There were a number of good reasons for signing Sterling and his nationality was definitely one of them.

 

[lemonalian]

These thing matter for smaller teams, a lot even, but not for Manchester city, city can buy whoever is available and the fans could just aswell consider that source Unlimited, AND its not like the fans af going to pay that pricetag.

People are now considering wether Sterling was worth that pricetag, but why really. Would they be happier with Sterling if he had only cost 10 million? If so why care about the pricetag? We are fucking loaded here.

The only thing that matters imho is wether Sterling can contribute and can improve. In that regard i have a good feeling with him.

The key thing is whether the price tag actually affects the player himself and whether it becomes a burden on his shoulders.

I'm not saying its the case with Sterling, but I'm pretty that it affected Torres when he went to Chelsea for example. In Torres' case, he may have felt less pressure if he went for much less money.

Steven Gerrard made a very interesting observation about this in his recent autobiography, with respect to Dejan Lovren, as he indicated that the burden of being Liverpool's most expensive defender in their history was a factor that negatively impacted on his confidence when things started going wrong for him.

 

[bluemoon98]

Says de bruyne is like Suarez in the way he contributed

 

[bluemoon32]

There's no point people bringing up the price tag, did we pay well over the odds ?
Of course we did but that's hardly the kids fault, he's doing ok.

 

[Father Paul]

Just think we could have got Costa for 25m or even someone like Montero for 10m

Don't forget two of the reasons we signed him were his nationality and his future potential