He's been by far the best so far this season.
Is Sterling the best english player at the moment?
- Thread starter TsuWave
- Start date
No, but he is the biggest system baby at the moment and possibly ever.
what's that?
He is not better than Kane.
I haven’t seen City play this season not even a 30 second highlight clip so hard to say for me. Kane has appeared a much better player in the past but can’t comment on this season.
I know stats don't tell the whole story, but...
Sterling: 6 goals, 5 assists in 772 minutes played in the league.
Kane: 6 goals, 1 assist in 984 minutes played in the league.
Someone who's fortunate enough to play in a team that caters to the strength of its attacking players.
Every time I’ve seen him play, he gets into great positions, makes great runs, but couldn’t score with a hooker that was having a going out of business sale. Has that changed? Or was I just missing his best performances?
since at least the knockout stages of the world cup.
Sterling gets tons of chances and City are incredibly dominant because of Sterling. not solely due to him, but he's a core component if not the. No other prem player, aside from sergio aguero, has been involved in more goals than him in all comps this season. And let's not act like Kane plays with chumps, spurs set-up is based around getting the most out of him. Also, @RedSky posted these stats in another thread:
Are there really that many "out and out strikers" around anymore? Not saying Kane is not an elite player, but I don't think I'd be wrong in saying that Kane's competition for that label is pretty slim. I mean, I've seen the lack of quality strikers around being posited as the reason we ended up with Lukaku on this forum multiple times.
perhaps it was hyperbolic, and possibly reactionary to some replies in this thread, but yes, I do think that Sterling has been the best English player for a while now.
Spurs have scored 19 goals, City have scored 33 goals. Kane was involved in 36% of Spurs' goals, Sterling was involed in 33% of City's goals. There's that too.
this is exactly how I feel
Last season Sterling contributed goal/assist every 89 min in the league and Kane every 96 min. Sterling plays in a more productive team but Kane is the main man at Spurs and the whole team works for him which sort of evens things out to an extent.
Well you can also compare him to Aguero.
Sterling: 6 goals, 5 assists in 772 minutes played in the league.
Aguero: 7 goals, 4 assists in 809 minutes played in the league.
Nope Wayne Rooney. Dragged DC to the play offs and is the best player in a tough league. Sterling wouldn’t get a game for DC.
So, bit better than Aguero, stats wise.
But he is simlar to Kane stats wise, but isn't good as him in general, IMO.
His stats are inflated playing for City and he wouldn't be half the player for any other team.
Sterling stats are a results of playing for a rampant team. He isn't even a natural finisher yet has good numbers because in 1 game he gets as much chances as what other players in other teams would get in 5 games.
Posting numbers in that City team without really seeing anything extraordinary ability wise from him isn't impressive. He'll get 5-6 chances a game and score 1. That isn't really impressive to me.
But one thing I'll give him is that he has good movements which allows him to get in those dangerous situation, and with City ability to create at will he gets no less than 2-3 clear goalscoring opportunities a game on average.
Posting numbers in that City team without really seeing anything extraordinary ability wise from him isn't impressive. He'll get 5-6 chances a game and score 1. That isn't really impressive to me.
But one thing I'll give him is that he has good movements which allows him to get in those dangerous situation, and with City ability to create at will he gets no less than 2-3 clear goalscoring opportunities a game on average.
Kane also takes all the penalties, Sterling does not.
'A more productive team' is underselling it a bit, don't you think? They scored 32 more goals than us in the league ffs.
They smash teams left, right and centre. I've watched City play plenty and Sterling gets more chances per game than Kane for sure, and that isn't down to 'superior movement' or whatever. Kane's movement is world class, he just doesn't play in a side who are as dominant as City are, nowhere even near.
The whole team doesn't work for Kane .. he actually drops deep plenty (especially this season) which leads to him getting less chances. The service to him this season in particular has been seriously poor, he might get 2 decent chances a game.
I'd love to see Sterling play for us and get close to his City stats. We only have their England performances to go off, in which case they've both been crap but at least Kane manages to score goals, both in qualifiers and in the tournament itself. Sterling just misses sitters and runs in to traffic a lot.
He's been better this season .. that's it.
Manchester City are not dominant because of Raheem Sterling. Sorry, nope, not having it. They would be dominant with another of their fantastic wide men slotted in there as well. Perhaps not as good (he is a very good player) but there's no way that without him they would be in dire straits considering they lost De Bruyne, a superior player, and still trash teams. They're just a fantastic side.
Kane doesn't play with chumps, but his support cast is not as good as Sterling's. It just isn't - Alli, Lamela, Son, Lucas etc are all very good players, but Eriksen is our only 'world class' creative player. City have Silva, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Sane etc .. it's a different level of quality, hence why they break points and goal scoring records. We're a good side, they're an elite one, and playing in an elite system can boost a players statistics big time.
Sterling reminds me of Pedro back in that old Barca side, although perhaps a better version. Clearly a very good player, but also clearly elevated because of the manager & level of his teammates. I don't think he would do much better than the likes of Son for us.
Lewandowski, Higuain, Icardi, Aguero, Cavani, Aubameyang .. there's some decent strikers, and regardless of that I'd have Kane as one of the best players in the world outright. He's got everything you need in a striker. Sterling at the moment is the most in form English player this season undoubtedly, but the best overall? Sorry but not for me.
But can he flash his abs?
Ahh the old 'it's not him it's the team' argument. I thought that one had died off a couple of seasons ago but no here it is again in all it's glory.
He is in better form right now but Kane is by far the better player and has been proving it for a long time. Kane has the potential to be one of the best ever English players in his position, not sure you can say the same about Sterling (though I do rate him highly).
Wtf? I’m saying he’s a class act. I was defending him when the other poster said he ‘only’ plays well because of where he is
Wtf? I’m saying he’s a class act. I was defending him when the other poster said he ‘only’ plays well because of where he is
I was agreeing with you partly - sorry reading it back I can see it might not have looked like that. Though Kane is absolutely an elite player. Salah looks like he will struggle to replicate last seasons form - Kane has produced for many years now.
Oh ok sorry
Yeah I think Sterling is class. I can’t understand why he’s so underrated and chastised. Hard to believe he’s only 23 and probably hasn’t yet reached his full potential.
I don't think Kane is the far better player, but he's definitely proven himself for longer than Raheem has. I also think Sterling has a good chance of going down as one of the best England players in his position, just as Kane does.
I agree that City's system and quality help him have those stats. At the same time, he's developing further as a player, his dribbling and decision making have become top notch. Let's see whether he can keep this level or become even better. In the context of the last 3 seasons, Kane is the better player without doubt. But Sterling's ceiling might be higher.
Last edited:
He is immense but he's a typical player for your country who turns from world class to muck as soon as he sticks on the jersey.
I think so, it's him or Kane and the former has had the better season up to now, as has his team to be fair.
I think 'system baby' is a very unfair term. It's the same kind of argument that says Pep isn't a top manager because he's only ever managed top players and transfer budgets. By all means take the circumstances in which a player or manager is working into account when attempting to appraise him but the selective application of those circumstances to boost or denigrate certain figures only weakens arguments in my opinion.
I think 'system baby' is a very unfair term. It's the same kind of argument that says Pep isn't a top manager because he's only ever managed top players and transfer budgets. By all means take the circumstances in which a player or manager is working into account when attempting to appraise him but the selective application of those circumstances to boost or denigrate certain figures only weakens arguments in my opinion.
The system argument makes Guardiola look an absolute genius at the expense of his players. Truth is only an excellent player can flourish in that system. Sterling is keeping Sane/Mahrez on the bench - two top players in their own right.
I initially thought the thread title aaid Smalling.
Regarding Sterling, yes he is.
Regarding Sterling, yes he is.
Playing for City is masking a lot of his flaws. Pep's system is designed to expose the opposition fullbacks in 1 on 1's with his wingers. A good player, nothing more.
How did Pep's system mask his flaws here?
or here?
It seems like he is improving to me.
It's a weird one. He does seem to miss sitter after sitter and yet somehow ended up scoring 23 goals last season. And he's on 7 in 14 this season already (plus his two for England against Spain).
I was of the mind that he just benefited from playing with Silva and De Bruyne and the system, but he's not only repeating last season's performances, he's bettering them. fair play to him
still runs funny though
still runs funny though
Still Kane for me. Incredible goalscoring record and solid all round play in a much lesser team. He also performs better for his NT. Sterling is terrific of course. But as things stand, I'll go for Kane.
He's always been able to get into good positions but his finishing was awful. That seems to have improved and it's made a huge difference. At 23, he could become really top drawer.
No, Milner is pound for pound the best player in the league, and Sterling is a bad boy with a gun tattoo.
In all serious yeah Sterling is quality, Kane is the only English player who you could argue is better, but since he got injured last season he probably hasn't been as good as Sterling.
In all serious yeah Sterling is quality, Kane is the only English player who you could argue is better, but since he got injured last season he probably hasn't been as good as Sterling.
Sancho been best English player this season.
It's all very well to say that because our team is so good, you could put someone else in sterling's position and they would have similarly impressive results, but where do you stop with that argument ? Could you do that with 2 positions ? 3 positions ? It's been made perfectly clear on here by united fans that the reason pep's so good is his unlimited budget and that he couldn't get a team performing in his style if he didn't have world class players. So which is it ? Could we put out a team of donkeys under pep and still play just as well or is it because the players are really, rather good ?