Guardiola glad that Sterling knows his own mind

PEP GUARDIOLA believes Raheem Sterling’s increased maturity can help him as a man and a player.

The City forward has thrown his weight behind a couple of high-profile issues lately.

First, Sterling sparked debate after speaking out about the negative media portrayal of young black players, following the abuse he received from the crowd during City’s loss at Stamford Bridge earlier this month.

And this week Sterling has pledged his support to local activists attempting to block plans by Brent Council to sell off a leisure centre where he played as a child.

Guardiola suggested both actions were evidence of his player’s heightened social awareness and maturity.

“People say, ‘No, no, people in sport cannot do anything, cannot speak about politicians, cannot do some justice,” the manager said.

“Of course we have to do that. If he believes in doing that, that’s a good thing. Many, many people do these games ahead of the teams’ crunch meeting on January 3.

“Of course any team has strong points and weak points, and of course we have weaknesses,” said Guardiola.

“We are working on it, but that’s normal. But for now these kind of comments have to be put in perspective.”

On the face of it, City’s Carabao Cup success over Leicester City on Tuesday has loaded extra strain on Guardiola’s squad, given the added games. But instead Guardiola chose to see the positives of remaining active on four fronts. “It’s another competition, I know that, but for that competition everybody is involved. In the last month, more or less everybody plays and plays a lot of minutes.

“For me it’s the only way to sustain the locker room and to keep the people fresh, mentally and physically, for the future.” At least the increased number