STERLING v SILVA
Barnes warning for Raheem at City
ENGLAND legend John Barnes has warned Raheem Sterling is facing the biggest test of his career.
Sterling lost his starting place at Manchester City towards the end of last season and now faces a new threat after the £43million arrival of Bernardo Silva from Monaco.
Former Liverpool winger Barnes is a big admirer of 22-yearold Sterling but insists he must improve his all-round game to realise his full potential.
Sterling joined City two years ago in a £49m deal and the similarities with Barnes are striking. Both were born in Jamaica, played for Liverpool and have the ability to set the world alight for England.
But Barnes insists some tough love might be needed for Sterling – just as Liverpool’s legendary former coach Ronnie Moran was hard on Ian Rush at Anfield.
Barnes said: “Towards the end of the season, Raheem was on the bench. Now they’ve signed Silva, so that’s an interesting development.
“Raheem has great potential. It’s effortless when he dribbles past players. He has to improve on things. His end product is going to be important. It’s the Ian Rush thing again.
“If Raheem was with Ronnie Moran, he would say to him, ‘Yeah, you beat five players but then the ball goes over the bar.’ That’s instead of: ‘You beat five players, how great is that?’
“You have to be harder with them for them to understand the things they need to improve on.
“I’ve seen a marked improvement in Raheem’s end product since he’s been with Pep Guardiola. His finishing, his passing is better.”
And Barnes believes Sterling needs to play with more experienced players who can offer him important guidance.
“Look at Theo Walcott. He’s a great player who has had a fantastic career,” said Barnes. “But in terms of what we expected from a 17-year-old to where he is now at 28,
maybe he hasn’t developed as much as we’d hoped.
“Raheem is 22 but the difficulty is he’s also playing with a lot of inexperienced players. Having players like Kenny Sansom or a Gary Lineker to help you along the way is important.
“I could easily have thought, ‘I’m at Liverpool, I’m a superstar’ but I had players I looked up to because of their seniority. At Watford, Wilf Rostron was there.
“Wilf said, ‘Do this or that’, and I did it. Now the emergence of the ‘superstar youngster’ means they have to be careful.”
Sterling has the ability to be a key member of the Three Lions’ new world as they try to move forward under Gareth Southgate ahead of next year’s World Cup.
But Barnes insists they should not set far-away targets and that will help them become successful in the longer term.
He added: “If you handle them properly, in the next four years they can do something. But I’m not expecting them to win the next Euros even. I just want them to play with freedom.
“If we don’t do well, we shouldn’t cast them aside. Support them, then they can grow and improve. It has to be a slow process.”