Words fail Pep as Sterling’s form dazzles
CITY BOSS REFUSES TO ELABORATE ON RISE OF RAHEEM
PERHAPS the highest praise Pep Guardiola gave Raheem Sterling after the City forward’s fourth hattrick of the year was that he didn’t want to say anything about him.
“We have been together for press conferences for four years and I have been asked many times. All the credit is for him,” he stated when asked about the 24-year-old’s improvement at the club.
City’s coach was never going to escape his post-Atalanta press conference without questions about Sterling. As if the attacker hasn’t become enough of a media darling over the last 12 months, he became just the eighth Englishman in history to record a Champions League treble to maintain his superb level and add to a remarkable story.
Pushed further, Guardiola would mention the player’s incredible recovery skills that mean he is always in excellent condition for games, his physicality and his versatility – but the upshot was there was nothing new that could be said.
It recalled a response the manager gave at Bournemouth earlier this season. Sergio Aguero had scored a predatory two goals to help the Blues to an important win against an Eddie Howe team that gave the champions a scare, and a reporter afterwards asked for some words on the City striker. He’s won you the game so give us a few nice words about him because people would rather hear you say nice things about him than us, basically.
The response to him taking his chances well? “Yeah, as always. It’s not the first time he scored goals, honestly.”
If it did nothing for the next day’s newspapers, everyone at the Vitality Stadium on that sunny afternoon simply saw Aguero being Aguero. There is a reason he is City’s record goalscorer and one of the most prolific seen in the Premier League, and that game was another example of it.
It appears we have reached a similar point with Sterling – long past the time when his finishing or his final decision or even his footballing potential was questioned. He leads the club’s scoring charts, two ahead of the ‘outrageous’ Aguero and seven ahead ‘one of the club’s best signings’ Gabriel Jesus. A hat-trick may be exceptional but an average of 91 minutes per goal this season means it is more of a surprise when he doesn’t find the net in a game.
Sterling has rubbished any comparison to Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo and would likely do the same for Aguero for the same reason – these are players that have done it season after season. However, with 23 City goals two seasons ago, 25 last season and now 12 in 11 games so far this season, he has done enough to be treated in the same manner as his team-mate by Guardiola.
Pep Guardiola on Raheem Sterling