I don’t think I am distracted by his qualities. I believe he had a great match defensively, maybe an 8 out of 10, despite the conceded goal and some poor ball control at times.
He got dribbled 4 times and I agree that easily happens when you face Sterling. He’s a great player. AWB stopped him many times and stopped almost every cross. Again, he was doing great. But it sounds like many people were almost religious about his performance, that it was among the best they have ever seen. Of course I can’t know how much football people have watched, maybe it was the best performance they have ever seen. For me however, it was a great performance, but he still got dribbled 4 times where at least one almost ended up in a goal scoring opportunity, he got run over by Otamendi at the conceded goal, and lost the ball a few times. My hypothesis is that he gets extra cred because the way he plays. It is a very entertaining to watch, compared to someone who just shuts down his flank without the tackles. He is sexier to watch than Shaw, who actually also had a good game but in a more quiet way.
The urge for him to become better in attack is a difficult one. I agree it is not just to train attacking skills. But if we look at the world’s best teams and their FBs, there would be more FBs who are skilled going forward, to hit crosses, etc than skilled at actual defending. Where United are now, I think he is perfect.