Sterling's movement and workrate is absolutely world class. I've seen very few players who are capable of getting into the right positions at the right times as often as he does and he never gives up, as his numerous clutch goals this season can attest to. If there is a dangerous run to be made he is making it, no matter how tired he must be, he is always trying to make something happen.
Having said that his finishing is somewhere between poor and average. It isn't as bad as the rag media make out but you also can't ignore the elephant in the room. Most of us, if we are honest feel trepidation when sterling gets in a good position and has time to think. You can almost smell his fear when he finds himself in those position.
I love sterling and I hate how the media vilifies and antagonises him but there's a small part of me that feels like he is going to mess it up at just the wrong time, like a champs league final. It remind me of Mario Gomez. Complerely different style of player but Gomez had a phenomenal scoring record for Bayern in the early 2010s but everyone knew he had a reputation for missing sitters. Well he missed half a dozen sitters at just the wrong time in the 2012 champions league final and we all know how that worked out for Bayern (Robben also missed a penalty so I guess you could argue it just wasn't there day, but I digress). And just look at Loris Karius is this champions league final. He had been looking pretty solid in the last 6 months and then he goes and costs his team a champs league final.
Big matches, with all the pressure and hype around them have a way of exposing players weaknesses and I just have this deep down fear, maybe from all the media brainwashing, that Sterling will one day cost us a champions league final or something similar. We had a warning of a similar thing against united this year when he fluffed his lines and we paid for it.
It's such a horrible thing to say about a player who scored so many important goals for us this season and probably saved more points off his own boot than anyone else on the team but I always catch myself wondering...can we find better for his position? Even after this past season I just continue to have this lingering doubt whether he is the real deal or whether peps system has papered over some of the cracks in his game. I just don't want him to melt down on the biggest stage.
Having said that, I honestly hope Sterling puts a last minute winner past Hugo Lloris in the final to bring it home, and stick it up them rag and Scouser arses.