Trevor Sinclair on Raheem Sterling

For you Moon:

Do you ever wonder why Raheem Sterling gets such a raw deal? He’s 22. He makes mistakes. He plays in a position where a young player can suffer from inconsistency. He’s still learning.
Does he get a break? No. He plays poorly for England in Malta and is hooked at half-time, but there is a lack of understanding and support. So few people standing in his corner.
He left a big club with a vocal and passionate support when he departed Liverpool. Yes, it was a bit messy and could have been handled better. It was a big fee at the time, although perhaps £49million for a player with his electrifying pace might not seem such a big deal after this last transfer window. But it seems the criticism has spiralled from there. The abuse he gets on social media is strong.
What do people expect of him? He’s a player with dazzling speed and skill. He scored a fantastic goal to bring Manchester City level against Everton and then scored the late goal at Bournemouth that got them three points. It’s still not enough.
From what I understand, those within the England camp were impressed with how he reacted to being substituted against Malta. He bounced back by training really well, with a smile on his face, full of enthusiasm and energy, which is exactly how any player worth his salt should react but so many don’t.
We’ve all had bad games, but nobody likes to be hauled off at half-time. Instead of moping or complaining, he trained hard and then came off the bench against Slovakia at Wembley.
He takes setbacks on the chin and has strong resilience. You need that to be a top player. It’s not just about the skill, but about character and nerve too.
His best form was under Brendan Rodgers for Liverpool. He’s not been as impactful at City but he’s done well and the best years are ahead of him. Far from losing faith with him, I hear Pep Guardiola is pleased with his progress and will continue to work on his development.
He can score more goals — a player with his ability, playing in this exciting City team, should be looking at 15 for the season, but again it’s something that he is working on. He created 166 chances in 95 Liverpool games and has 82 in 67 for City. His goals-per-game ratio is better with City as he is getting older, stronger, more clinical.

It’s been some couple of weeks for him — the winner at Bournemouth, the red card, being picked and then taken off by England. In the middle of that was transfer-deadline day when it seemed as if he might move to Arsenal as the makeweight in the deal for Alexis Sanchez.
When I read the story, I said: ‘No way!’ I thought it was the wrong move from City when you look at his age and his ability. 
When I spoke to a few people I know at the club they said it was Arsenal doing all the running. It seems they asked for him and City were adamant he was not going and quite right too.

For me, his best position is to the left of an attacking three — but not as a winger. I like him coming inside off the line, with the whole picture in front of him, fronting up a defender and then beating him left or right with his quick feet and explosive pace. His decision-making can improve but, again, he’s a young player and he is still learning the game. Let’s not kill him now.
It seems he handles the criticism well, although I do think some in the media are too quick to jump on the bandwagon.
I’m sure Raheem knows the only people he needs to listen to are Pep, the coaches at City and his experienced team-mates. It’s the same on international duty — listen to Gareth Southgate and his coaching team and he won’t go far wrong.
Raheem Sterling is a very good player. A very good English player. We should champion him more.

I find it odd that he gets booed. I mean, I get the dippers booing him for leaving, even though he went to advance his career (and get a nice pay raise in the process) and he's never once bad-mouthed his previous employers, so I don't really follow why they are still so butt-hurt about it. But why did Everton boo him the other week? I was even more stunned when Huddersfield fans booed him last season, what the hell is it to them??

The only thing I can think of is the Liverpool friendly media are vilifying him somehow and it's total bollocks.