Raheem Sterling - 2017/18 performances

[domalino]

More of this would be good to see.

 

[Callum Ramsey]

That first half performance was probably his best all-round performance in quite some time. Everything he did was with a conviction and confidence in his ability and he looks to be maturing in his play. What I've loved more than anything in the past 2 games is that he seems to be taking a lot more responsibility and not shying away. If he's not receiving the ball down the flank he will move into space in the middle and demand for the ball to be played to him even if he's under pressure and whenever he gets the ball he always looks to create and make something happen. The bit of the game that summarises the maturity he's showing was when he run back to help deplh, won the ball and then instead of rushing the play under pressure in a dangerous area and clearing it, he calmly picked out a team mate to start a counter-attack. He's high on confidence and playing with so much technique, composure and intelligence that if he continues it won't be long until he cements his place as an important player for pep in the first-team.

 

[Neville Kneville]

That first half performance was probably his best all-round performance in quite some time. Everything he did was with a conviction and confidence in his ability and he looks to be maturing in his play. What I've loved more than anything in the past 2 games is that he seems to be taking a lot more responsibility and not shying away. If he's not receiving the ball down the flank he will move into space in the middle and demand for the ball to be played to him even if he's under pressure and whenever he gets the ball he always looks to create and make something happen. The bit of the game that summarises the maturity he's showing was when he run back to help deplh, won the ball and then instead of rushing the play under pressure in a dangerous area and clearing it, he calmly picked out a team mate to start a counter-attack. He's high on confidence and playing with so much technique, composure and intelligence that if he continues it won't be long until he cements his place as an important player for pep in the first-team.

He's becoming something other than a speedy winger & almost turning into a striker/midfielder & he's starting to show the kind of touches & intelligence, such a player needs in a Guardiola team. In fact, the bog standard, running head first, England winger type job, seems to be what he is worst at.

He is evolving into a footballer, rather than a speed merchant & it's great to see it happening.

(When he plays with England under their manager, it must be like being sent back to kindergarten. No wonder he doesn't look right).

 

[Callum Ramsey]

He's becoming something other than a speedy winger & almost turning into a striker/midfielder & he's starting to show the kind of touches & intelligence, such a player needs in a Guardiola team. In fact, the bog standard, running head first, England winger type job, seems to be what he is worst at.

He is evolving into a footballer, rather than a speed merchant & it's great to see it happening.

(When he plays with England under their manager, it must be like being sent back to kindergarten. No wonder he doesn't look right).

That's the thing though, he's always been a footballer first and a speedy-winger second, it's how he made his name at pool and won the golden boy award by playing in a no10 role that demanded a lot of intelligence and technical ability and his game relied on that not his speed. This is a player who both coutinho and rooney were moved from a 10 role to accommodate him such was his talent. I still maintain he hasn't reached that level of performances he was putting in that season with suarez since and that's not because he has regressed in ability or anything but rather he has been for the past 2 season required to operated as an out-and-out winger and while he's more than capable of being dangerous there, his game there is totally different than when he's given a more free role and is allowed to operate from the middle.

Even pep said a while ago that he feels raheem prefers and is better operating from the middle and in the past 2 games that has looked to be the case. I can see he's getting a lot more freedom in the space and positions he can take during a game by pep and in the watford game especially there were many moments where aguero would move to the flank to allow him to come inside through the middle and it worked a treat for the team going forward.

 

[Hungarian blue]

More of this would be good to see.

Spot the brilliant heads up play by Gundogan too. :)

 

[Neville Kneville]

That's the thing though, he's always been a footballer first and a speedy-winger second, it's how he made his name at pool and won the golden boy award by playing in a no10 role that demanded a lot of intelligence and technical ability and his game relied on that not his speed. This is a player who both coutinho and rooney were moved from a 10 role to accommodate him such was his talent. I still maintain he hasn't reached that level of performances he was putting in that season with suarez since and that's not because he has regressed in ability or anything but rather he has been for the past 2 season required to operated as an out-and-out winger and while he's more than capable of being dangerous there, his game there is totally different than when he's given a more free role and is allowed to operate from the middle.

Even pep said a while ago that he feels raheem prefers and is better operating from the middle and in the past 2 games that has looked to be the case. I can see he's getting a lot more freedom in the space and positions he can take during a game by pep and in the watford game especially there were many moments where aguero would move to the flank to allow him to come inside through the middle and it worked a treat for the team going forward.

Suarez was a smarter footballer than Aguero, Liverpool players get fee kicks/pens for fuck all & Raheem had a year of Pellegrini (who makes Rogers appear as smart as he thinks he is)all at the same time, (plus England) is the plain reason for that stall in Sterling's development imo.

Suarez was always looking for a 1-2, or several, Aguero was always looking for a 1. Aguero is now becoming more Suarez & Pep is undoing the damage of Pellegrini, Fat Sam/ Southgate etc but also adding bits of David Silva to Sterling's game. He is becoming smarter, gradually. He will just gradually get better imo (with people moaning at him in the meantime) & he's already outgrown the England team.

 

[lightning Rodri]

More of this would be good to see.

This part of his game makes one think that he could easily be as good as Hazard, if only he did it consistently.

 

[taconinja]

He, Jesus, and Sané are both very well suited to a 4-3-3. If we can field them with Silva (either one), De Bruyne, and Gündoğan behind, it'll be a nightmare for the opposition.

 

[KCblue]

Very unlucky not to score last night.

 

[Metalartin]

More of this would be good to see.

I was with Sané there with my hands half in the air, was sure it was heading in and ready to celebrate it. I felt for Sterling at the time(you could see how much he wanted it) deserved a goal really as I think he did everything right, nice early shot, well hit with a good shape to it(even when he does everything right the keeper pulls off a save like that to spoil it)... great stop by Foster to be fair, he has faster reactions than I realized he had.

It was good to see the Sterling-Jesus-Sané front 3 again, I hope to see more of this when the game suits it as I think all three of them can switch positions across that front line. That combined with the pace of each of them could give any team trying to man mark a lot of headaches, it is a young front 3(probably would still be the youngest one on show in the CL if we were to use it) though and some games will require a different approach.

If we can get this trio firing together and the Aguero-Jesus partnership continues to flourish with Bernardo starting to settle in nicely to that mix. We may just start to be considered one of those dangerously unpredictable teams that opposing managers really don't like facing. Not only in the squad they'll be facing but the formation too... and ontop of that we can change formation, tactics, key players during the match because the players are getting used to doing that now. I know most managers try and change things during a match but the team ends up playing the same way more often than not(take the reaction to Conte changing things at half time in the Arsenal game last year, I think that shows it's not the norm in the PL, I wonder if Pep will start getting credit when he does start turning games on their head when it's needed?), I think it's really noticeable when our team changes something this season. This could be why Pep was changing things so much last year(to the "not sold on Pep" camps frustrations) he was making the players comfortable in different positions by switching them around(sometimes during a game when others felt it wasn't needed... isn't it better to try these things before a game has gotten away from you?), those that could do it got praise and will be part of the future those that couldn't do it have either already left the club or will be doing next summer in all likelihood.

What happens if both Sterling and Sané really kick on this season and bag hat fulls do we still bring Sanchez in? There's already lots of rotation going on, we'll see how we cope in the busy winter period I suppose.

I've noticed the Arsenal rumour has resurfaced, apparently we are to "re-open talks"(the talks where City said "Zero chance of a deal?") with Arsenal over a move and they are preparing a bid for Jan. These journo's just don't listen do they?