#7 | Raheem Sterling - 2020/21 Performances

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Sterling is underperforming but he'll come good again IMO, runs a lot with no end product, maybe it's just the position he's playing in?
I am not sure Sterling has recovered from the miss against Lyon. That said I think the main issue is the same as Bernardo and, to a lesser extent, KDB. He looks exhausted after playing a ridiculous number of games last season for club and country. I agree that he will get his mojo back though.
 
I am firmly in the camp that I really do not think he is good enough to play in a team that achieves what we all hope for going forward. I think defenders have by and large got him worked out and he has failed to evolve accordingly.

Careers are defined by what you do in big moments and his finishing has constantly failed him in just such moments. Aguero can miss sitters but when its a final or a title decider and the chance comes....in the net it goes. Penalties not included in this!

What I do find quite astonishing and dont really get is why any criticism of Raheem Sterling is met with such horror, but totally acceptable to be scathing of Stones, Gundo, Mendy and of course FFS? All of which have been considerably better than Raheem this season. Why such hysterical claims that City fans hate the bloke no less? None hate him I would not have thought but can see something going wrong on the pitch a player who currently and for some time now has not looked upto the job.

I do not for one minute any City fan would be less than thrilled if he suddenly hit form and scored vital winning goals in finals and League deciders and became the English Ronaldo. Sadly its unlikely and the truth is he has been off form for a considerable amount of his time here.

A few helpings of humble pie would go down nicely over the coming months and I sit here hoping to dine, I am not sure I would be wise to depend on that pie to survive on though.
Forgetting the last minute goals he scored against Southampton, Bournemouth and Everton in the title winning season as an example of him stepping up to the plate? What about the penalty to win the Carabao cup against Chelsea?

Aguero does step up in a lot of games and score winners but he has cost us a few times also, they are human. It happens.

Sterling has contributed a lot more in the past 3 seasons than Mendy, Gundogan and Mahrez combined.

We have ran Sterling into the ground, he needs a good few weeks off and he will be back, he hasn't become a bad player overnight after scoring 20+ for 3 seasons in a row.
 
Forgetting the last minute goals he scored against Southampton, Bournemouth and Everton in the title winning season as an example of him stepping up to the plate? What about the penalty to win the Carabao cup against Chelsea?

Aguero does step up in a lot of games and score winners but he has cost us a few times also, they are human. It happens.

Sterling has contributed a lot more in the past 3 seasons than Mendy, Gundogan and Mahrez combined.

We have ran Sterling into the ground, he needs a good few weeks off and he will be back, he hasn't become a bad player overnight after scoring 20+ for 3 seasons in a row.

Well lets hope you are right.

I do agree that he has played an awful lot of football over the years despite being still relatively young. Is that catching up? It could be which would both be a worry and perhaps an endorsement of how Pep is treating the likes of Phil Foden. Will he get a few weeks, will he see his arse if he is told he is out of the picture for a few weeks?

Yes he has scored winning goals but so have most of our current players. Yes he bagged the winning penalty against Chelsea but then you would not expect anything less from the spot from someone who is considered a top class forward dont be fooled by the strange current penalty curse that we seem to have.

Vinny who was a defender scored virtual title winning goals under immense pressure against the rags and Leicester both at times when it was looking like slipping away. Raheem has sadly fluffed his lines under similar pressure against Lyon and against the rags when we were already 2 in front, but had he scored we would have won the title against them at the Etihad.

Whilst the very hint of anything negative about Raheem is translated as saying he is shit and a donkey that is not the case, nor is he the great player that people make out. The biggest problem is his terrible lack of consistency and dreadful finishing this combined is costing us more than he is contributing.

As I said I have a voracious appetite for some humble pie and hope very much Raheem can serve me plates of the stuff.
 
Well lets hope you are right.

I do agree that he has played an awful lot of football over the years despite being still relatively young. Is that catching up? It could be which would both be a worry and perhaps an endorsement of how Pep is treating the likes of Phil Foden. Will he get a few weeks, will he see his arse if he is told he is out of the picture for a few weeks?

Yes he has scored winning goals but so have most of our current players. Yes he bagged the winning penalty against Chelsea but then you would not expect anything less from the spot from someone who is considered a top class forward dont be fooled by the strange current penalty curse that we seem to have.

Vinny who was a defender scored virtual title winning goals under immense pressure against the rags and Leicester both at times when it was looking like slipping away. Raheem has sadly fluffed his lines under similar pressure against Lyon and against the rags when we were already 2 in front, but had he scored we would have won the title against them at the Etihad.

Whilst the very hint of anything negative about Raheem is translated as saying he is shit and a donkey that is not the case, nor is he the great player that people make out. The biggest problem is his terrible lack of consistency and dreadful finishing this combined is costing us more than he is contributing.

As I said I have a voracious appetite for some humble pie and hope very much Raheem can serve me plates of the stuff.
I think to a certain extent it is catching up to him, but he is supremely fit and naturally fit it seems so I think he will be ok.

So he has scored winning goals but so have others so that means its nothing special?

What about Gundogan who fucked a chance against the rags as well in that game? Kompany was in defence also and we conceded 3 in one half, please don't try to put that blame on Sterling.

Yes he missed a great chance against Lyon but it happens, Jesus did also and defensively we were all over the place. We don't need to go back over that game.
 
I think to a certain extent it is catching up to him, but he is supremely fit and naturally fit it seems so I think he will be ok.

So he has scored winning goals but so have others so that means its nothing special?

What about Gundogan who fucked a chance against the rags as well in that game? Kompany was in defence also and we conceded 3 in one half, please don't try to put that blame on Sterling.

Yes he missed a great chance against Lyon but it happens, Jesus did also and defensively we were all over the place. We don't need to go back over that game.

To win the title or CL I think you have to have Aguero, Lewondoski, Haaland Bale if not a Ronaldo or Messi all of which of course have and will continue to miss the odd sitter but they all have a knack of not missing them in big big games, Sterling is not at that level.

The bottom line is we need from somewhere to find one if not two of that kind of players in order to continue to win things. Sterling is not that player and whilst we do not have that in the side and chances fall to him we are going to keep missing out because of him missing chances.

He was at his best in a side with an on form Aguero and Sane alongside him and maybe if we bring that quality in Sterling will once again thrive, much like it seems John Stones might given the quality he has to now compete with to get a game, strangely that does sometimes bring out the best in players.

I just dont think the lad is as good as many think not a player you turn too when things are not going well, a luxury player and even flat track bully who can look very good in a very good team.
 
I think to a certain extent it is catching up to him, but he is supremely fit and naturally fit it seems so I think he will be ok.

So he has scored winning goals but so have others so that means its nothing special?

What about Gundogan who fucked a chance against the rags as well in that game? Kompany was in defence also and we conceded 3 in one half, please don't try to put that blame on Sterling.

Yes he missed a great chance against Lyon but it happens, Jesus did also and defensively we were all over the place. We don't need to go back over that game.
Like we don’t have to go back over games you have mentioned there. ?
How long can we dine out on the Southampton last minute winner or the penalty he took v Chelsea,where we wouldn’t have lost necessarily if he’d missed ?

It’s the here and now that counts,you hear the manager saying this all the time,past is past

He needs to get his act together for the sake of himself and the team and nobody no matter what rose tinted spectacles they’re wearing can’t disagree with

Hopefully if selected Saturday he gets a 7/10 although a 9 would be better
 
To win the title or CL I think you have to have Aguero, Lewondoski, Haaland Bale if not a Ronaldo or Messi all of which of course have and will continue to miss the odd sitter but they all have a knack of not missing them in big big games, Sterling is not at that level.

The bottom line is we need from somewhere to find one if not two of that kind of players in order to continue to win things. Sterling is not that player and whilst we do not have that in the side and chances fall to him we are going to keep missing out because of him missing chances.

He was at his best in a side with an on form Aguero and Sane alongside him and maybe if we bring that quality in Sterling will once again thrive, much like it seems John Stones might given the quality he has to now compete with to get a game, strangely that does sometimes bring out the best in players.

I just dont think the lad is as good as many think not a player you turn too when things are not going well, a luxury player and even flat track bully who can look very good in a very good team.
I don't think anyone has ever said Sterling is of that level and he never will be, all of the players you have said there are basically unobtainable other than Messi so you can't just go and buy these players.

The team as a whole needs to get better, Sterling isn't going to do it himself.

I don't think he is particularly over rated here at all, a lot of people are very honest in that he is as good as he is because he is in this team. He didn't have this many goals at the dippers and probably wouldn't elsewhere, that isn't necessairly a huge issue. Is it a huge shock that players play better in better teams?
Like we don’t have to go back over games you have mentioned there. ?
How long can we dine out on the Southampton last minute winner or the penalty he took v Chelsea,where we wouldn’t have lost necessarily if he’d missed ?

It’s the here and now that counts,you hear the manager saying this all the time,past is past

He needs to get his act together for the sake of himself and the team and nobody no matter what rose tinted spectacles they’re wearing can’t disagree with

Hopefully if selected Saturday he gets a 7/10 although a 9 would be better
I am not dining out on it, it was said that hes never stepped up and won a game like Aguero which just isn't true. We don't have to go over the Lyon game which was a collective shit show. We didn't go out just because Sterling missed a chance.

Yes he does need to get back to his best but Pep isn't putting him in the right place to do so imo.
 
I don't think there is any revisionism going on. You have stated yourself that last season wasn't his best and then he has carried that lack of form into this season. Last season he got 30+ goals which for me, makes up for his poor performances overall. I wont knock anyone who bags 30 goals a season. This season however, his poor performances have continued (arguably even worse) and he isn't scoring the goals to cover for it. That is a problem.

What worries me is that in his early days at the club he was poor, which mirrored the team as a whole. Then as the team got infinitely better in 17/18 and 18/19, so did he and he looked genuinely world-class, in what was arguably the best front 3 on the planet. Then as the team has regressed since the beginning of 19/20, so has he. The very best players produce even when the teammates around them aren't. We have a prime example in KDB winning POTY even though the team as whole weren't at it. If Sterling needs the team to be firing on all cylinders for him to show up, he isn't world-class.

He either needs to step up to the plate and show everyone that he is a top player, or he needs to at least start scoring again. If he does neither, which is where he is at the moment, he is of no use to us whatsoever.
I appreciate your reasoned response. Firstly I would say there definitely has been revisionism of him both as a player and his season last year. You don't even have to read that far back in this thread to see that, with some going as far as to claim he hasn't played well or had a motm performance in 12 months which is just not true. Like I said I though he started last season well and only started to dip in form from december onwards, then after lockdown I though he played well against liverpool, brighton and watford. I also though he had a decent first season with pep in 16/17, not great but certainly not poor either only aguero and debruyne scored and assisted more respectively.

But to your bigger point on him last season not performing compared to de bruyne, like the post you replied to, I believe fatigue kicked in from the amount of minutes he's played since he became a first team player at just 18. Not to add De bruyne was also injured for the majority of the 18/19 season so you could argue came into last season much fresher than sterling did. It was no coincidence to me that sterling's form started to falter when it got to the busier part of the season and fixtures were coming in much quicker.

Lastly I think he's shown numerous times that he can perform and make a difference when the team isn't performing as a whole and a fully rested/fit sterling would've performed much better than he did last season, again you may disagree with that point but that's my honest feeling. He's just been overplayed and it caught up to him last season and has carried into this one. He needs rest to regain both his fitness and form and hopefully others can step up to allow that as unlike some here I don't think a 25 y/o going into his peak who has scored 20+ goals consistently the past 3 seasons has suddenly turned crap and needs to be sold.

Unfortunately there are some who have never rated him as a player and nothing he does will ever change their opinions of him. But thankfully both the club and manager seem to value him highly and I won't be shocked if come the end of the season the same people who go into every season doubting him as a player will be eating their words once again.
 
It's up to Raheem to change people's opinions of him. At the moment he deserves a bit of flak because he's not been anywhere his best and hasn't for the best part of 6 months.
I'm confident he's good enough and mentally strong enough to get back on track.
 
Totally agree he was capable of terrorising any fullback on the right like he did against Robertson just shy of 2 years ago. He barely looks capable of beating anyone most of the time on the right as his pace is completely wasted. If teams didn’t always sit back against us it wouldn’t be so bad him being on the left as a ball through would be fine. Against parked. busses though it just makes us too narrow.
i just don't think hes the same player on the left but it would help if he wasn't playing against parked busses. I don't know why pep wont give us sterling on the right and torres on the left.
 
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