Thursday 19 November 2015 11:23, UK
Manchester City want Raheem Sterling to score more goals, but what are the prospects of improvement? Ahead of a Saturday Night Football clash with former club Liverpool, Adam Bate looks at his progress...
Shortly before Raheem Sterling moved from Liverpool to Manchester City, a research group in the International Centre for Sports Studies rated the young England international as the sixth most valuable player in the world. It should act as a clue that when City eventually agreed to pay £44m for his services, it wasn't just Txiki Begiristain and his pals who held Sterling in such high regard.
The fee alarmed many. Others simply scoffed. But it's worth remembering that even in his final season with Liverpool, which was arguably less impressive than his previous campaign, Sterling created five times as many chances, completed four times as many dribbles and scored more than three times as many goals as any other Premier League player of his age.
In fact, his tally of seven goals and seven assists put Sterling in that exclusive group of players who can both score and create. The other five Premier League players to do this last season were Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla and new team-mates David Silva and Sergio Aguero. Top-class performers but, significantly, not many of them had delivered these numbers when they were 20.
At Sterling's age, Silva was on loan at Celta Vigo, Cazorla was only beginning to get regular football at Villarreal and Sanchez had scored three goals in 43 appearances for Udinese. Even the precocious Hazard didn't score more than seven league goals in a season until his fourth full season for Lille. As a consequence, there is legitimate hope that Sterling's numbers merely hint at what is to come.
Perhaps that explains why potential has been the focus of much of Manuel Pellegrini's comments regarding his summer signing. The City boss was candid in targeting goalscoring as an area in which Sterling needed to improve. "I think last year he scored 11 in all competitions," said Pellegrini. "I am sure this season he will improve. I am sure he will score more goals than he did before."
Those sentiments were soon reiterated - "I'm sure he'll score more goals" - after Sterling got off the mark against Watford in August. However, it's valid to wonder just how much can be expected from him. How much will Sterling's finishing improve? More than 160 games into his professional career and there are still serious question marks over his finishing technique.
Liverpool supporters delighted in seeing Sterling squander the chance to score on his debut against West Brom. It was a side-footed pass-back of an effort that Ben Foster read with ease. Like the Liverpool fans, it seems he too had seen it before. More recently, there was the point-blank header - unmarked and from close range - that was well stopped by Brad Guzan last time out.
It is Sterling's ability to run with the ball at pace that marks him out as a supreme talent. It's his close control and deceptive gift for gliding past opponents. Putting the ball away in clinical fashion is a very different skill and not something with which Sterling is associated. For all his qualities, he has not shown much evidence of being a particularly crisp striker of a football when under pressure.
"It is important for a striker who must improve his number of goals to be calm in the box," said Pellegrini when discussing Sterling's finishing last week. "It's important to finish with your head up and dominate the situation, not let the situation dominate you. And that's something we are trying to improve every day."
At least Sterling seems in the mood for improvement. "I've been doing okay with my club, I'm happy to be top and I've scored in a few important games as well," he said recently. "Hopefully I can keep scoring for City, it's been a good few months and I hope it can continue. Going training with players of that calibre like Vinny, Sergio, David, Joe - there's only one thing you can do and that is improve."
This service and quality around him to which he alludes was a factor in his Liverpool departure. Sterling shone alongside Luis Suarez and a firing Daniel Sturridge but soon discovered that things can get trickier as the main man. Now he's amongst high quality once again and that has allowed him to revert to a different role.
The statistics show that Sterling's chance creation and dribbling has dropped off this season. Instead, he is a recipient of the ball rather than a creator. Sterling has had more touches, more shots and scored goals more regularly this term. With six in all competitions, he is already more than halfway towards his best ever season in front of goal.
According to Opta, Sterling has had eight clear-cut chances to score this season. He only had 13 such chances in the whole of last season. It highlights the benefit of life at City. Prior to the Spaniard's injury, he was the man on the end of Silva's passing - such as the threaded ball that put him clean through on his debut at the Hawthorns. As a result, it's natural that Pellegrini should expect more.
"I knew he scored 11 for Liverpool, but I don't think that's a huge amount for Raheem," he again stressed last week. "He must score more and to do that he must work a lot. He soon settled into our style of play and I'm happy that he has six already, but of course Raheem is a young player and I was sure from the beginning that he must improve a lot.
"When you are 21 years old and you work as a good professional, you must improve. Playing every day with important players is good for a young player, you are always learning from experienced players. But the third thing, which is very important, is the style we play is good for him. He will have good chances to score."
Now Sterling needs to show that he can take them on a consistent basis.
