Only the joyless do not appreciate special Sterling
Forward is not perfect but he showed why rivals fear him, writes Matt Law in Moscow
The dwindling glass half-empty crowd will tell you Raheem Sterling does not take his chances, they will point to his England goals record and complain his end product is not good enough. They will have cheered when he was replaced by Marcus Rashford in Moscow. But these are the people who stand on the edge of the dance floor grumbling the music is rubbish, moaning the queue at the bar is too long and trying to poke fun at those enjoying themselves.
They find it amusing to routinely give Sterling the lowest mark, when given the chance to rate the England players’ performances. But the joke has been on the joyless in Russia.
By focusing solely on Sterling’s shortcomings, the bedroom critics deny themselves the thrill of appreciating his many strengths.
His explosive pace, which rattled Croatia defenders Dejan Lovren and Domagoj Vida, his willingness to run and defend for the team, his ability to pull wide on to either flank.
At international level, Sterling’s qualities often seem to be appreciated more by the opposition than many of the supporters of England.
Croatia’s Zlatko Dalic became the latest manager to pick him out as the chief threat to his side, as Gareth Southgate was forced once again to defend the 23-year-old.
Ahead of England’s biggest game in 28 years, Southgate said: “If you look at our attacking patterns and the way our front four have combined, Raheem’s been instrumental.
“He’s appreciated by the team. I’ve had messages from ex-players with the same view. His work ethic without the ball has been incredible. He’s a huge threat.”
He was all of that last night, whatever those who will have been glad to see him removed from proceedings might tell you.
Vida breathed a huge sigh of relief after just about managing to get to a long Jordan Pickford kick ahead of Sterling and it was more through good fortune than design that Lovren got in the way of an attempted Harry Kane throughball ahead of the Manchester City forward.
For the second successive game, Sterling was asked to play ahead of Kane on the shoulders of the opposition. It meant they could not risk defending high or stepping out from the back.
They had to be aware of the man they needed a five-yard head start on to stop.
With the advantage of Kieran Trippier’s early opening goal, it was the perfect scenario for England to try to exploit and Lovren had to foul Sterling by the touchline after being embarrassed by his pace.
He was fortunate not to be booked by referee Cuneyt Cakir.
With Sterling remaining the