Which player do you most associate with Pep Guardiola? Lionel Messi, obviously, whose maintenance of the cathedral eventually became a one-man job. Xavi and Andres Iniesta, the apprentices who quickly became pass masters. Dani Alves, perhaps, for his role in a new era of attacking full-backs. Sergio Aguero, part streetfighter and part goalscorer. Ederson, the new king of sweeper-keepers. Fernandinho, because counter-attack demolition and sacrifice are key ingredients in Manchester City’s plan.
At what point would Raheem Sterling’s name come up? Because, if nothing else, Sterling wins by association. Of a list of players picked most often in Guardiola’s managerial career, his name sits comfortably on top. In part that is down to circumstance (Guardiola has coached in Manchester for longer than anywhere else), but it is still a striking statistic. Sterling is also the youngest member of the top six.
And yet it makes complete sense. In Sterling, we see Guardiola’s expertise as a coach laid bare. He arrived at Manchester City as a still-raw winger for whom pace was the obvious weapon. Sterling was a creator, a facilitator for others. Now he’s one of the others: since the start of 2019-20, Sterling has 40 goals and only nine assists. Pace is now a latent weapon rather than potent, assisting him in his movement rather than defining it. He is a complete forward, if not a complete player.
Education is a two-way street. A teacher’s success depends in part on the attention of the pupil and that has always been the aspect of Sterling’s game that Guardiola has most appreciated. “I think he has an incredible reception to our talks,” Guardiola said in 2019. “He’s been open from the day we arrived more than three seasons ago and that is why he is becoming one incredible, exceptional player.”
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Liverpool inch towards the quarters after Firmino and Salah down Inter - ratings and analysis16 February, 2022Manchester City have a type of goal they prefer to score, albeit they have great variety too: passing across midfield, side-to-side, pass-and-move, the ball rarely moving more than 15 yards at a time; the darting run or the exploitation of defensive uncertainty creates an overlap out wide; two players aim to get close to goal while at least one other hangs on the edge of the penalty area; the pull-back; the finish. Part suffocation, part death through a thousand passes. The simplicity belies the meticulous planning and supreme execution.
Crucially for Guardiola, Sterling has learned to play both roles in this play. Against Sporting on Tuesday, he broke the line, turned and pulled the ball back for Bernardo Silva. Against Norwich on Saturday, he scored a perfect hat-trick including two goals from inside the six-yard box. Sterling is increasingly becoming one of the most effective poachers in Europe: half of his league goals since the start of last season have been scored from six yards out or fewer. The finishing, so long a cause for derision, has improved. No Manchester City attacker gets more of their shots on target. Only one scores with a higher percentage of their shots.
This has been a good statistical week for Sterling’s longer-term legacy. Last weekend he scored his fifth Premier League hat-trick – only eight players can beat that. It also took Sterling into the top 30 goalscorers in Premier League history and just as surprising is the split: 66 with his right foot, 30 with his left, 10 with his head. Then, on Tuesday, he became the second highest English goalscorer in European Cup history. At his current rate, he will pass Wayne Rooney next season.
Sterling endures an odd reputation in the English sporting psyche. For a country that loves to hype up its talents to a fault, Sterling is our exception. We only really seem to talk about Sterling when there is a perceived problem. Silence is not evidence of mediocrity; quite the opposite.
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Before last summer’s European Championship, fevered discussion focused on whether Sterling should be in Gareth Southgate’s team at all; he was promptly named in the Team of the Tournament. He went 27 England games without a goal and yet now has 20 for his country. He was reportedly available for sale last summer and now Guardiola is pushing for Sterling to be given a new contract; he is their top league goalscorer. Every time Sterling becomes the cause célèbre, he has an answer.
Sterling has faced unprecedented competition for places at club and international level: Jadon Sancho, Ferran Torres, Riyad Mahrez, Gabriel Jesus, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden, Marcus Rashford. His versatility became a challenge disguised as a blessing. So too did his critics; they created a mirage that Sterling was simply a place-filler until someone better or more popular came along. But maybe there was nobody better. Sterling he has seen off that competition every time. Not only is he Guardiola’s most-used player, he was also the highest-capped player in England’s last major tournament squad.
One thing we rarely talk about with Sterling is his availability. Simply being there can easily be interpreted as damnation through faint praise, but it shouldn’t. We know the dangers of playing a lot of football at a young age, particularly in speedy attacking players. Sterling has missed 12 matches for Manchester City and England in almost six years, half of those due to a hamstring strain in February 2018 from which he returned in less than four weeks. At 27, he has played 524 senior matches and yet he is getting stronger, getting better. This isn’t normal.
The temptation is to sympathise with Sterling for the manner of his coverage over the first part of his career: the front-page tabloid treatment, the outrage over the desire to leave Liverpool, the tattoo histrionics, the simmering campaign to find someone else for his England position. You suspect that Sterling – to his credit – saw it a different way. He had no use for sympathy.
The doubters will never go away and will probably never get sufficient answers to dissuade them, so what benefit is there to revenge? Sterling collected the slings and arrows fired in his direction, broke them in half and used them as fuel for his own excellence. He refused to drift towards external expectations of what and who he should be, because to achieve on someone else’s terms is to barely achieve at all. If that makes Sterling’s success since taste 10 times sweeter, we can allow him the satisfaction.
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