CITY SPECIAL ‘Brilliant’ Raheem is praised by Southgate
RAHEEM Sterling was ‘brilliant’ over his disappointing half-time substitution for England last week.
The City star was hauled off after a poor first-half performance in the World Cup qualifier against Malta, in which he missed an easy early chance.
England manager Gareth Southgate replaced Sterling with United’s Marcus Rashford, and then dropped him to the bench for Monday’s game against Slovakia.
But Southgate says the way Sterling took the indignity of being hauled off after 45 minutes was exemplary.
“His reaction to being taken off was brilliant,” said Southgate.
“I mean, it’s not easy for any player to be taken off at halftime, but I think he understands that we have belief in him.
“I said after the game that he’s got a really tough mentality and he showed that. His response in training was really good.
“Again he’s another who is only two years older than Dele Alli, so he is another young player who is improving all the time.”
Sterling has had a rollercoaster fortnight, leading a 10-man City comeback that earned a draw against Everton, and scoring the last-gasp winner at Bournemouth before being sent off for his wild celebrations with Blues fans.
Those goals established Sterling as early front-runners in the City goalscoring charts, ahead of recognised strikers Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus.
Then came his downer with England, quickly followed by news that City fans had voted him to be the club’s player of the month for August. MANY football fans – and England fans in particular – were aghast City did not bite off Arsenal’s hand when they offered to take Raheem Sterling in part-exchange for Alexis Sanchez.
It looked like a no-brainer to those who see Sterling infrequently.
Sanchez is undoubtedly worldclass, at the peak of his powers, and a player who would, without question, improve the Blues attacking options.
But a peek into Sanchez’s own past perhaps reveals why Pep Guardiola was not overly keen to trade in the 22-year-old Londoner for a more mature model.
When Sanchez was in HIS early 20s, the similarities between his situation and those of Sterling are striking.
Udinese had plucked him from Chilean club Cobreloa as a 17-yearold and immediately loaned him out, firstly to Colo-Colo and then to River Plate.
Unlike Sterling, who was starring for Liverpool at 17, Sanchez was protected and nurtured before making his Udinese debut a couple of months short of his 20th birthday.
His progression was none too smooth. He was clearly a raw talent, but the inconsistency of youth and the challenge of decision-making – which has killed many talented wingers – took its toll.
Sterling has been roundly criticised for his lack of end product, especially when it comes to scoring goals, not least from Guardiola himself.
And yet Sanchez managed 21 goals in his three seasons at Udinese, a tally that Sterling reached in just two years at City.
It was only when he joined Barcelona that Sanchez started to make his mark in terms of goals, and he did not peak until he hit 30 goals – for the only time in his career – as a 28-year-old at Arsenal last season.
Sanchez, like Sterling, was well aware of his main shortcomings. Ahead of 201011, he said: “I need to score more goals.”
That season he hit double figures for the first time, netting 12 times to add to his all-round excellence. City were initially at the front of the queue to sign him, with Roberto Mancini desperate to bring the 22-year-old to City. But Barcelona swooped to snatch him away, and a bitterly frustrated Mancini ended up with Scott Sinclair instead. The fact that Sanchez worked like a demon in training to rub out his goalscoring weakness is a lesson that Sterling does not need to learn – he DOES apply himself in training. Guardiola has been patient with the youngster, and does his best to instil the belief that sometimes appears to desert the lad when he cocks his foot to shoot. “We encourage him, tell him he has to be positive, and try and try and try and try to score a goal,” said Guardiola recently. And so far this season, in one start and two substitute appearances, he has grabbed two goals. If he can keep that going, and sharpen up a little on his work around the box, it could be his Sanchez moment. Stuart Brennan