Manchester City Season in Review: Raheem Sterling

During the close season, Man City Square is going to review each member of the 2015/2016 Manchester City squad and grade them for their year. Next up number 7 – Raheem Sterling

So if you’ve been following these Manchester City Player Report Cards we’ve been doing, you’ll notice that I had to skip a few players to get to Raheem Sterling. It’s topical, after all. You’d be hard pressed to find a media publication not talking about Sterling following England’s 1-1 draw with Russia the other day, otherwise notable for the fan violence that could see England’s untimely exit from the Euros, to Boris Johnson’s delight.

Admittedly, it seems a bit unfair at this point to pick on Sterling. He’s officially the scapegoat for England not winning and carries the blame for Harry Kane having a howler too. Heck I wouldn’t be surprised to learn someone, somewhere has pinned the blame for the rioting Russians on him too. We all know BT Sports’ game by now, and finding a conveniently placed Manchester City player struggling for form makes the perfect punching bag for an otherwise intrepid and underperforming England.

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It’s true however that Sterling just isn’t playing well and hasn’t been for some time. We talked about this before even in an aptly titled article “The Devaluation of Sterling”. There we focused on the horrific £50 million price tag he commanded, something not really the lad’s fault, and the diminishing returns that followed. Sadly not much has changed since then, for club nor country.

In 23 Premier League appearances, Sterling managed 6 goals, a reasonable figure for an attacking midfielder/winger. Unfortunately his league assists of 2 is far less acceptable, especially since right-back Bacary Sagna managed 3. He did provide another 2 assists in Europe, to be fair, and another 3 goals there too, but those ultimately came in the earlier stages and did little to paper over the difficulties he seemed to face later on. From City’s last Premier League game against Swansea on May 15, you have to go back some 22 league games to November 28 to find the last Sterling assist. That’s not good.

While his advanced statistics bring little comfort in this regard also, it’s somewhat beating a dead horse to continue to highlight how underwhelming Sterling has been this year. We know it, he knows it. He’s not lived up to his billing nor his price tag and that has brought an unjust amount of scrutiny on the lad as he struggles to put it all together.

He’s only 21, after all. He has shown he has the talent to make it work at the highest level, but when you’re struggling for form and everyone’s on your back then how can you ever hope to build the confidence required to execute? It may well be his job, for which he’s handsomely rewarded, but that doesn’t make things any easier.

My gut tells me that, ignoring cheeky rumours, Sterling will likely be a Blue next year also and perhaps for the foreseeable. Obviously the amount of money invested in him is prohibitive at this point, but there should also be the feeling that there’s a player in there that needs a good coach to retrieve. Who better than Pep Guardiola?

The only question mark that remains is where exactly would Sterling fit in Pep’s plan? We’ve seen Sterling struggle, both locally and abroad, most infamously with his final ball, but his possession has been below average too. With that, all he offers Guardiola’s game is his speed and potential trickery and you can be sure that’s too much of a gamble to rely on without a fall-back option. Or maybe Sterling himself will find himself a fall-back. Pep is well known to tinker and often shifts the line-up from game to game to keep the opponent guessing.

Either which way, with Ilkay Gundogan now added to a midfield with De Bruyne, David Silva, Jesus Navas, Kelechi Iheanacho and the strong likelihood of one or more of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Leroy Sane, one wonders where exactly Sterling will fit. Though fit he may well, not necessarily on merit at this point but on potential.

Next: Guardiola vs Mourinho

I do think the media’s tripping over themselves to blame Sterling and chastise the lad for England’s larger failures is unfair and he should be defended. But let’s be honest, he hasn’t had a great year at all. I genuinely believe Pep will bring out the best in him, but Manuel Pellegrini clearly failed and watching him get further and further into his own head is depressing. For all the hope that was and yet remains, Sterling disappointed and gets no more than a 5 out of 10 from us.