Everton 1-3 Manchester City: 5 Talking Points and Tactical Analysis | Premier League 2019/20

#4 Raheem Sterling fails to sparkle on Merseyside

Sterling managed a goal but was far from his best

In the past couple of months, there has been plenty of chatter about Raheem Sterling being among the most elite of top brackets among footballers. To put things into perspective, some have even classified the Englishman as just a rung below the mercurial Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

And, for a major chunk of the current season, the forward has vindicated those claims. However, one reckons that Saturday evening at Goodison Park might not feature on that particular list.

For large parts of the match, the Englishman looked a shade sluggish, often coming up second best in 50-50 challenges. Additionally, he rarely got the better of Coleman on the flanks, meaning that he had to cut inside on most occasions, thereby significantly blunting his offensive threat.

More disappointingly though, Sterling’s end product against Everton went uncharacteristically awry.

At times, the winger found himself in promising situations. Yet, he either failed to beat the first man or was unable to pick out an advancing teammate.

On other instances, when Sterling was sent through on goal, he fluffed his lines.

Early in the second half, Mahrez slipped in the Englishman delightfully. However, when eyeball to eyeball with Jordan Pickford, the winger placed his shot horribly wide.

And, though Sterling made the net bulge and made several unselfish runs to free up his fellow attackers, he still fell quite short of the astronomical standards he has set for himself.

So far this term, there haven’t been a lot of blemishes the Englishman has had to chalk off his slate.

While the match against Everton would represent an anomaly, all world-class players go through such games, wherein they stamp their authority in the succeeding games.

And, if Sterling manages that, then probably, he would’ve further stoked the fire of being mentioned in the same breath as a diminutive Argentine and a goal-scoring Portuguese.