We Should Shout About Manchester City’s World Class Raheem Sterling
If you look at Raheem Sterling’s stats at Manchester City since Pep Guardiola took over at The Etihad in 2016, then you have to acknowledge just how consistently good the England forward’s been in the last three years.
In that time, Sterling has played in ninety Premier League fixtures and he’s scored thirty-seven goals and created twenty-six assists. That’s a superb record for a player that predominantly plays as a winger!
During that same timeframe; Raheem has also played in twenty-two Champions League games, scoring a further eight times and he also has a further five assists.
In his last ten City appearances the attacker has scored five strikes and created three assists. This term his passing success rate in England’s top flight is up at 85.9%, he makes 2.2 key passes per Premier League outing and he’s having around 2 shots per game (Stats via Whoscored).
No other Citizens player has created more league assists than Sterling this season and only prolific frontman Sergio Aguero has netted more times.
He even on average makes more tackles than English centre-back John Stones!
It’s hard to think of a more direct and better all-round threat from a English winger during the Premier League era. Let’s not forget that the player is just twenty-four years of age.
Yet for some reason the English media seem to be unwilling to call him a world class performer or laud his fantastic ability.
It might be down to the fact that the winger has had his issues in the past. He has been seen as a bit of a bad boy and possess a disappointing attitude.
He was attacked by the tabloids just before the 2018 World Cup because of a gun tattoo. In many ways it was reminiscent of the way the American media reacted to talented basketball star Allen Iverson for having so many tattoos and for his cornrow hairstyle.
Instead of asking Raheem about his culture and why he got the tattoo, they simply vilified him for getting it.
The Man City star just can’t seem to win when it comes to the press. They slag him off for buying his mum a nice house and then slag him off for flying with a budget airline (Source Balls-ie).
The media headlines often include words like ‘idiot’, ‘greedy’ and ‘failure’ when describing Raheem Sterling in their headlines.
Personally I can’t see why you’d call him any of these things when you look at his footballing career.
Idiot – He’s earning a fortune playing football and has the trust of great coach Pep Guardiola.
Greedy – Eh he has the most assists for Man City this season. They probably mean his wages, the wages that City have agreed to pay him because they believe he’s worth it.
Failure – Sterling, at twenty-four, has won the Premier League and League Cup with City.
Plus if he was so petulant and was such a bad boy, why’s has he only been booked twice in the league so far this season?
Some will say that he’s not really replicated that club form in an England shirt.
Well neither did the entire golden generation. Even world superstar Lionel Messi hasn’t done the same things for Argentina as he’d managed to do with FC Barcelona!
I think despite the English press continually having a go at him before the tournament, Sterling was one of England’s top performers in Russia. He helped his nation reach their first World Cup semi-final since 1990.
The only person that matters when discussing Raheem Sterling’s attitude (for me) is Pep Guardiola. This is what the coach said about Raheem in December (Source – Fox Sports):
“I think Raheem Sterling has handled the last few years in terms of situations and rumours, about him or his family or the colour of his skin, very calmly,”
“I admire him and appreciate that it’s not easy for him.”
“He’s loved by all staff and in the locker room.”
That’s a big endorsement of Raheem’s character.
So I no longer think that there’s an excuse for not calling Raheem Sterling what he is and that’s a world class footballing talent that can turn big games on their head.
He did it last night in the Champions League against Schalke and I wouldn’t be surprised if he does it again at Wembley in the League Cup final against Chelsea this weekend!
The media should be embracing him, not constantly trying to do him down.
Posted on February 21st, 2019 by scott
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