'Tired' England Star Raheem Sterling Deserves Credit for His Honesty

Well done, Roy Hodgson. When a substitute helps to make a winning goal within nine minutes of arriving on the pitch, the manager is generally entitled to a pat on the back.

And well done to Raheem Sterling, too, for if the Liverpool teenager felt too tired first to complete an England training session at London Colney on Saturday then to start the European Championship qualifier in Estonia the next day, he was right to say so.

That should be the end of it.

And, of course, the beginning of a spell in which both England and Liverpool are going to have to monitor Sterling’s health and morale even more closely than the club, in particular, have been doing under the regimes of Rafa Benitez—it was towards the end of his time when the then-15-year-old was secured from Queens Park Rangers’ academy for £600,000 rising to £5 million—Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish and Brendan Rodgers.

As Gary Lineker has tweeted: "Raheem Sterling is a teenager. ... He’s young, still developing, we should cut him some slack." Quite.

Some prodigiously talented young footballers need it, some don’t. When Ryan Giggs turned 20, he was already a key member of a Manchester United team that won the Double. But Sir Alex Ferguson was to use Cristiano Ronaldo a little more sparingly at the same age, while at Barcelona, even Lionel Messi had to wait for his 20th birthday before fully emerging from the shadow of Ronaldinho.

So Sterling should not be put under too much pressure of expectation now, despite his massive contribution to Liverpool’s superb Premier League campaign last season and a bright showing in the World Cup afterwards.

Pace, balance, dribbling skills, an eye for a finish; he’s got a lot. But he hasn’t got maturity and experience, naturally enough, and, with his cry for help at London Colney, was asking Hodgson to supply those qualities. It’s Hodgson’s job—and he did it.

Predictably, there have been comments to the effect that a 19-year-old shouldn’t get tired. But, in football, as soon as you hear such sweeping assertions—"If he’s not interfering with the play, what’s he doing on the pitch?’"—you know there are over-simple minds at work.

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Young players tend to tire more than older ones partly because their mental equipment is less efficient; in other words, they are not as clever at conserving energy.

This can be seen in Sterling’s game. It doesn’t mean he should be artificially restrained by Rodgers or Hodgson, for the exuberance of his game is an admirable part of it. It just calls for a rest now and again. Time and guidance should take care of the remainder as his career develops and we discover whether he is, as many have taken to saying, one of the most exciting young attackers in the world.

Let’s not forget that we have been down this road before. Remember the fuss we made when Theo Walcott’s hat-trick spearheaded that 5-1 win under Fabio Capello in Croatia six years ago?

Or more recently, when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored in the Maracana? Or even when Andros Townsend’s verve carried England back to Brazil for the World Cup?

This is not to imply that any of those three are to be denied important roles in England’s future, for all are capable of it. Nor to deny that Sterling’s consistency, up to now, has been exceptional for a young player, possibly hinting at greater potential than any of them.

It’s just to underline that the minds and bodies of successful young footballers encounter stress and change, and we should not make unrealistic demands of them.

Both Sterling and Hodgson merit understanding rather than reactionary drivel. The product of their conversation was a second-half appearance in Tallinn for Sterling and a free-kick winner from Rooney, after the substitute had been fouled, shortly afterwards. The team performance was industrious and sensible, no more—but no less.

Things are coming along nicely, and Sterling’s club colleague Daniel Sturridge should be back for the Wembley meeting with Slovenia next month. It’s an odd time for pundits to be wringing their hands.

Patrick Barclay is an award-winning football journalist and best-selling author, whose portfolio includes biographies on Jose Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson and Herbert Chapman.