Midfielder Sterling rises in Guardiola’s esteem

LONDON: Raheem Sterling (pic) has been told that improving his goalscoring record is the key to securing his long-term Manchester City future.

Sterling could have moved to Arsenal in August as City tried to secure the £60mil (RM332mil) signing of Alexis Sanchez but both deals ended up falling through.

The England winger declared last month he never considered the prospect of moving to Arsenal and he was determined to make himself a success in Manchester.

Manager Pep Guardiola has made clear Sterling needs to be a regular goalscorer in order to thrive at City.

The message appears to have got through as Sterling is now on course for the best goalscoring season of his career, with the help of City coach Mikel Arteta, a former Arsenal captain.

“I think Raheem is enjoying scoring goals,” said Guardiola as his team prepared for today’s home game against Arsenal.

“He’s not scared, he’s not afraid to take a risk.

“And now he’s seeing how fun, how good it is to score goals. Now he’s more focused on that.

“Mikel Arteta is working many, many hours and days after training specifically about the last action on the pitch – that control in the last moment to make the right movement in the final three or four metres. “Raheem has wanted to stay there on the training pitch, to improve, to practise, to shoot at the goalkeepers.”

Goalscoring used to be a problem for Sterling – who often looked nervy when chances came his way, particularly in his early career.

He has never scored more than 11 goals in a season but has 10 already this term, having hit four in his past five matches.

Guardiola added: “I think it’s mainly because he’s decided ‘I want to score goals. I can do that and I’m enjoying that’.

“His final pass still has to improve – he has to do it better.

“He has got better but he can still do better.”