Sterling has verbally agreed a new five-year deal at City, according to Sky sources
Thursday 1 November 2018 23:12, UK
There will be a season when Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling will score 30 to 40 goals, says Craig Bellamy, but he can improve his finishing.
The England international has verbally agreed a new five-year deal at the Etihad, according to Sky sources, with the contract expected to be signed in the coming weeks.
Former City striker Bellamy has backed Sterling to keep improving his goal tally and believes the best is yet to come, although did point to tweaks he could make when scoring.
"He's going to get more goals. He's going to get better. We were saying it last year when he was going through that period of missing opportunities, but he was still scoring a lot," he told The Debate.
"He will get a big amount of goals again this year and there will be a season when he will get to 30 or 40 goals. I'm telling you now, he definitely will do.
"As long as he stays fit and everything goes well with his health, he will have a season where he just takes off.
"Raheem is not a great striker of the ball. With his laces, I always feel like he's going to miss the target. He's got to get used to passing into the net.
"He will get a big amount of goals again this year and there will be a season when he will get to 30 or 40 goals. I'm telling you now, he definitely will do."
"Lots of young kids want to hit it as hard as possible and I go nuts, I won't have it. It's got to be passed into the net at all opportunities.
"Thierry Henry is the perfect example, if he can pass it into the net and work on it on a daily basis and I believe he is intelligent enough to work on that."
Sterling has come in for criticism for wasting chances, especially when on international duty with England, but Danny Higginbotham believes this is an unfair assessment.
He explained: "He gets unnecessary and unwarranted criticism, especially when he goes away with England, but Manchester City are better than England.
"When all of a sudden, you go away with England, it will obviously be a little bit more difficult because you haven't got a Sergio Aguero or David Silva next to you or a Kevin De Bruyne who is going to be playing those passes through.
"Even at times at the World Cup, people were questioning what he was doing. If he's not scoring, then he's not doing anything - well I disagree with that completely. It's unbelievable."
