I'm not quite sure where you stand with StErling... you really come across as being on the fence with him in the countless number of threads you've mentioned him?
Sterling and kane and rash have been superb. Been a joy to watch. Dier booked for a superb tackle and smash on ****** ramos
To be fair, it is his first goal for just over three years. That can't be acceptable in anyone's book.
It's not great but that's not really his main job is it? If he was our main striker then yeah of course. Southgate obviously sees his value on the pitch other than goals.
A player with an attacking role shouldn't be going three years without scoring. I'm not saying he should have Kane's record but there will be centre halves with better strike rates.
That was very shaky that last half hour or so. Fair play to Spain for waking up finally though. Hope the remainder of these matches are as good to watch as this- only turned on after 25 mins and glad I did!
Sterling’s a quality player but he doesn’t get used right for England. Playing him as a number 10 takes away his strengths. If he’s running onto through balls & coming in from wide positions he’s top class. If someone’s scoring 34 in 97 for Man City yet not scoring against some really weak international teams it’s certainly not a quality issue it’s obviously a positional issue
Sterling is very much a club footballer, for Liverpool and City he's been consistently good, last season he was brilliant, as for with England up until Southgate came in he was very poor in 9 out of 10 games, since Gareth's come in he's improving very quickly, but generally his performance in the final third lets down the rest of the good stuff he does.
The style of footballs completely different through. It’s a very slow build up internationally. For club as soon as there’s space he makes a run & a lot of the ball is played to him as City like to play at high pace & use wide men where as England do the opposite (at least until tonight). Under Hodgson we mainly played 4-4-2 with Sterling having more defensive responsibility & it’s been 3-5-2 all the way with Southgate up to now. The last 2 games are the first times I’ve seen England set up similar to how he plays at club level.
Not saying it's entirely his fault but even under Hodgson where a lot of players were put in positions they were uncomfortable with he was still pretty poor, regularly used to give the ball away and had no end product.
He was on fire today. He got in lots of similar positions in the WC but lacked composure, maybe as he had the hoodoo of not scoring over him. Was a cracking game tonight.