That’s the thing though, there have been players playing in the front three in teams playing as well as we’ve been playing this season who’ve scored 50+ goals a season every season for years.
Sterling has the opportunities to be scoring fucking shit loads more than he is and should. He said it himself, “I know it takes me three chances to score and that’s not good enough, I need to be taking two or three of the three that come my way” in that interview with Neville.
He can see it and is open to say it, a lot of fans can see it, Pep has been seeing it and it came to a head yesterday.
A proper elite player getting the opportunities Sterling does would have banged in 30 goals this season. So while 20 is good and is a huge improvement, what’s been laid on a plate for him by our fantastic team and the coaching that’s seen him improve, he’s actually done worse than he should. In the last few weeks his finishing and close control have been pretty awful.
I like him, I want him to do well, but I’m not seeing someone who is going to be a long term mainstay of a Pep team who’ll be going for four trophies every season. We will sign that Sanchez or Mahrez or whoever else we’ll go for next window and it’s becuase Sterling isn’t elite.