WORLD BEATER
Training tips from Guardiola, extra gym sessions and finishing school with Arteta. Now Sterling looks a...
THERE was luck involved in Raheem Sterling’s winning goal for Manchester City on Sunday. After the Huddersfield goalkeeper saved from Gabriel Jesus, the ball simply struck Sterling on the knee and arced into the empty goal.
But in other ways, it wasn’t a lucky goal at all. Firstly, Sterling had started the move outside the penalty box and continued his run to be in the right place to benefit when the ball bounced kindly.
Secondly, Sterling was still the busiest guy on the field with only four minutes left on the clock. The 22-year- old seemed to have reserves of energy that other players did not have on a hard afternoon’s football in poor conditions.
So along with Sterling’s good fortune came the benefits of sound coaching and a commitment to fitness and conditioning. Of all the City players who have improved under Pep Guardiola this season, few have progressed quite so noticeably as Sterling.
Yesterday a video emerged of Guardiola and Sterling on the training field earlier this year. It shows the City coach rather manically walking the young forward through an attacking manoeuvre.
It’s an interesting piece of film because it shows Guardiola at perhaps his most typical. The Catalan is a micro-manager. Sometimes you feel that if he could stride on to the field and physically pull one of his players into a more satisfactory position then he would.
This type of management is not without risk. Some players cannot stand it, especially on matchday. They feel they should be trusted and the ultra-intense scrutiny wears them out.
But it would appear Sterling has benefited. The move being shown to him in the video involves him laying the ball back to a teammate before spinning away from his marker into the penalty area to receive the return pass.
Late on against Feyenoord in the Champions League last week, Sterling did exactly that and found the space to score the winner.
So twice in a matter of days, Sterling has scored late on to guide City home. He has now contributed 12 goals this season and has directly earned his team seven points in the Premier League and Champions League with goals in the last 10 minutes.
Guardiola has not exactly turned Sterling’s career around during their 18 months together. The England forward was a good player already. But there has been definite improvement. With City recruiting enthusiastically once again during the summer, it looked for a while as though Sterling would be the odd player out.
Privately, some close to Sterling expressed fears that the former Liverpool star might find himself on the fringes this season. It is to his credit that this has not happened. Instead of settling into a bit-part role, he has improved his fitness and strength and worked on his finishing with City coach Mikel Arteta, often when most of his team-mates have headed inside.
Sterling was always a danger after emerging at Liverpool. In the 2013- 14 season that saw the Merseyside club have a run at the league title, he was a key member of an attack also featuring Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez that always looked as though it would be able to score one more goal than the opposition.
However, his personal goal figures were never anything like they are already this time round. Finishing was never a strong point and the highest number of goals he had ever scored by December 1 was the six he netted for City in 2015-16. That year at Liverpool, meanwhile, saw him score only 10 times for his club all season.
At City he is asked to play rather differently. Under Brendan Rodgers at Anfield, Sterling would lead Liverpool counters with positional freedom. At City, in a team expected to dominate territory and possession, a greater structure is required, as is an ability to work effectively in tighter spaces.
That takes us back to the drill seen in the video. It is an example of a player learning.
Sterling has been around a few years now but it is worth noting that he is not yet 23 and he is still developing important habits, such as winning penalties.
A foul on him on Sunday enabled Sergio Aguero to equalise from the penalty spot and he also won one in the recent win over Arsenal.
Guardiola attributes this to improved strength, saying at the weekend: ‘He is strong, keeping the ball. Before he would lose a lot of balls. Now he is keeping the situation much better, one on one, to provoke fouls.’
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had his own view on this, suggesting Sterling had dived against his team. But replays didn’t back that up and it is clear that defenders are merely increasingly ill at ease against a faster, stronger, more mature player.
City and Guardiola will now hope that he stays fit throughout the winter. England, meanwhile, will hope Sterling’s form can last a little longer than that.
It’s to his credit that he didn’t settle for a bit-part role