He's almost a great player all-around, but his finishing just seems random. Sometimes great, other times like he doesn't have good enough technique or composure. It's the most obvious weakness in his game. I'm not going by stats, it's just from observing him play.
Is Sterling the best english player at the moment?
- Thread starter TsuWave
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How do England fit Rashford, Sterling and Kane in the same team?
Same way we battered everyone in our qualifying group for 5+, I imagine.
I know it's just qualifying but no England team in a long time has dominated a campaign so thoroughly, and the Czech Republic and Kosovo are actually tidy teams (better than 90% of England's usual qualifying group dross -- as much as I love and support the minnows personally). We had by far the highest GPG of any team in any group and set all kinds of records during that campaign, along with personal records for Kane.
Kane and Sterling were an imperious duo with good chemistry, and now it looks like Rashford might be able to actually join them on their level. The biggest problem really now is what to do with Sancho. We have too much forward talent. It's not the worst dilemma in the world.
Don't think there ever was a time where Sterling was England's best player.
Top 3 at worst? Depending on how you rate Sancho or Rashford of course.
Potentially 4th then?
I'd put Rashford/Sterling and Sancho all level at the moment.
With the lack of creativity we've got in midfield I'd probably play Sancho over the other 2 though.
Hat trick against the Czechs last year.
While he doesn't score goals, I'd have Trent Alexander Arnold as better than Sterling. Prolly the best right back in the world and will likely stay that way for a while. Sancho and a healthy Kane too.
But it's not just his finishing that's poor though. His game itself has been poor, at least for a while now. I watch him play for City and he's a feck up away from ruining an attack, failing to execute even the simplest of passes at times.
Someone said he hasn't recorded an assist since October and that's ridiculously poor for a winger, especially playing for Pep.
He's basically been putting Lingard numbers for half a year now. 1 goal and 0 assist. That's Lingard's territory of bad.
Wait, are people being serious when they're rating Rashford above Sterling?
I'd agree with that. I think two things Kane has over Sterling for sure is composure and consistency,.
Wait, are you being serious when you ask why people are rating Rashford above Sterling?
No.
Jordan Henderson is the best. Close this down!
Why not?
I think Sterling suffers from the City tag: any success at City is entirely due to the system which magically bumps you up a level, compared to at other clubs where systems are purposely built to work against attacking players. Sounds all good but I'm still trying to reconcile this theory with the "bald fraud" theory so I'll get back to you when I've done this
That said, I think Rashford has had a good enough season, and is great at international level so the comparison isn't ludicrous. Kane's the clear cut best player.
Yeah, dude want to act as if Sterling is fecking Messi or something.
Talk about being delusional
This year alone Rashford has been a better player and performer than Sterling, I don't even know what's throwing that poster off.
It's such a bizarre criticism. Guardiola isn't playing Sterling as some form of charity, it's because Sterling works in his system. Rashford also definitely benefits from playing a counter attacking style under Ole.
I'd definitely agree Rashford has done better than Sterling this season, I just think it's too soon to say Rashford is clearly better than Sterling, like some people have been saying. If he outperforms Sterling next season as well then I think it's safer to make that judgement.
As a neutral I think Rashford is better but I've always felt Sterling was a bit overrated anyway. His touch is erratic, his finishing can be extremely bad and his all round game IQ is lacking in comparison to his teammates. The other night was the perfect example, he could've rolled Jesus in for a tap in but not once did he get his head up and look instead opting for a powderpuff shot off the post.
Rashford has more goals, more assists, a higher conversion rate, a higher shots on target rate, more dribbles completed all while playing less games and for a vastly inferior team (no offence United fans).
Neither are the best English player atm though. Alexander-Arnold is better than both.
I agree with this. Erratic is definitely the word I'd use to describe him. And, unfortunately, I agree on Alexander-Arnold.
Alexander Arnold is barely a key player for our national team so it seems weird that people claim he is the nation's best player. Everything the poster said about Sterling is also the same for Rashford and people are acting like Sterling hasn't been consistent for many seasons now.
Kane is probably our most proven and consistent and reliable player
Kane for me.
Great post. That's a really good point: a lot of people hold, simultaneously, the views that Pep is a fraud and that playing for his team automatically makes you a better player, thus devaluing your individual achievements.
I wouldn't go as far as saying those beliefs are mutually exclusive but they are in the ways that some people express them. You can quite fairly argue that merely being in a Man City team with that much quality should elevate your level (or at least your statistical output, making you look better). And I 100% subscribe to that idea. But then I also don't believe that Pep's a fraud. Somewhat overrated and undertested, maybe, but certainly not a fraud.
Put Kane in City's team and even in his current state (rusty, coming back from a bad injury and a career record period away from football), he's a 25 goal striker in the league alone (30+ when fit). He's done those numbers for Spurs more than once (29, 30), when they were very good but never close to dominant in the way City have been.
Yup, Kane by far.
Smashed it tonight, albeit against Brighton. A hat trick, which takes him up to 17 goals in the PL this season.
His three goals tonight took him past Mane in the scoring charts. One is up for Player of the Year, the other having a 'bad season'.
6 of those goals came vs WHU in the first game (0-5) and today. Not downplaying the achievement, hat tricks are great, and he has obviously done well to score 17 goals, but it doesn’t mean he’s been close to as good as Mané this season, imo. He has been poor for a pretty long stretch of the season, so no surprise he’s out of contention for PoTY. City’s collapse will also have an impact.
True, but it's also testament to just how much Sterling has developed over the past few years that he can score 25+ goals in all competitions again and still be seen as having a below-par season by his standards.
Yeah, which is a good example how forwards should not just be compared based on goals, because Mane is on another level to Sterling.
Once Greenwood gets a chance, we can close this thread
Definitely, I think he’s great. For a big part of the season his form was bad though, wouldn’t you agree? The poster I quoted seemed to be under the impression it’s unfair that Mané got the PoTY stamp while Sterling’s season was deemed poor, it’s really not.
You still can't deem Sterling's season as poor though.
Just because he's not been as good as Mane, doesn't mean Sterling's been poor this season.
He's had a good season - despite his usual 1st half of the season being much better than his 2nd half of the season.
Just because he's not been as good as Mane, doesn't mean Sterling's been poor this season.
He's had a good season - despite his usual 1st half of the season being much better than his 2nd half of the season.
Yep...best English player at the moment Imo, always wants the ball and never hides and never stops making crucial runs...a world class player
But there is a lot of young talent coming through like Saka, phoden and Greenwood
But there is a lot of young talent coming through like Saka, phoden and Greenwood
That is one of the dumbest goals in Premier League history.
I also think Guardiola deserves some blame for Sterling's form falling off a cliff midway through the season. It became painfully clear he could have benefited from sitting a couple of games out on the bench but Pep kept starting him even when he was playing poorly and looked fatigued. I know Sane's injury limited options but there was still enough cover to allow Sterling a break.
Agreed, he’s had a good season, but these things tend to be taken to the extreme, one way or another (poor or great). Not a lot of balance to it, it doesn’t make for good headlines I guess.
People go over board on Sterling. He is not best English player at the moment. What is the moment? 5 games after lockdown? Marcus Rashford is better than Sterling. Dont ask me why. I am not interested.
100%.
Fans are fickle though it’s human nature to get caught in the moment. Sterling is either the best English player or poor it seems. Throughout the season he has been good overall with patches of brilliance and patch of being poor it happens to most players.
As I said though it’s nature Greenwood is now called a superstar but he is young and still learning and there will be times he won’t be scoring as much or playing poor I hope our fans don’t criticise when that happens
Sterling is a fantastic player. Thats why he plays for City.
Rashford is also a fantastic player, thats why he plays for us. Both will start most games for England.
Rashford is also a fantastic player, thats why he plays for us. Both will start most games for England.
Right now 100% Rashford Kane Sterling seems like the front 3. Hopefully Greenwood keeps up his level I wonder who he would push out ?