Why Raheem Sterling Has Most to Prove for Liverpool in Final Weeks of Season
With a perfect goal-and-assist performance helping England on their way to a 4-0 home win over Lithuania on Friday night, Raheem Sterling returns to Liverpool with much to prove before the season ends.
England manager Roy Hodgson told ITV (h/t Sky Sports) after the game that Sterling had been playing through the pain barrier.
TOP NEWS
Madrid Fines Players $590K 😲
'Mbappé Out' Petition Gaining Steam 😳
Star-Studded World Cup Ad 🤩
"He's been playing through a situation, getting himself ready each week to get on the field of play. He did it again tonight, which is terrific, Hodgson stated. "But he doesn't need to continue those shows of bravery. It's important he gets it put right for us and Liverpool.
"Sterling was waiting for an injection on his toe—he has been waiting for a while."
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers will be hoping that he doesn't require any further rest in terms of games, as he has a vital role to play.
Rodgers will surely have a good idea of whom he would like to remain in his squad for next season, and it is perhaps Sterling who most needs to prove his true worth to the club with precarious circumstances looming for the 20-year-old.
Daniel Sturridge's Injury
In recent weeks, Sterling has been utilised in a disappointingly mute wing-back role in Rodgers' 3-4-2-1 formation due to injury to Jordon Ibe and the poor form of Alberto Moreno and Lazar Markovic.
What Sterling's star England showing proved is that he is most effective in an attacking role.
At Wembley on Friday, Sterling joined fellow goalscorers Danny Welbeck and Wayne Rooney in a three-pronged, malleable attacking line and thrived.
What perhaps made this possible was the absence of Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge who, as Hodgson suggested, via Sky Sports, has suffered "a slight tear."
Sturridge is expected to be out of action for a month, which means he'll miss Saturday's must-win clash away to top-four rivals Arsenal.
This situation has become somewhat second nature to Liverpool supporters this season, as Sturridge has only managed 11 Premier League appearances so far, scoring four goals.
When Rodgers switched to his 3-4-2-1 system for Liverpool's 3-0 December loss away to Manchester United, he finally hit upon a way to work around Sturridge's absence, and this came with Sterling in a centre-forward's role.
Sterling has started as a lone striker nine times this season, scoring three goals—half of his tally for the entire campaign—and providing two assists.
After Sterling scored Liverpool's winner in their 1-0 Boxing Day victory over Burnley, Rodgers told reporters, via Ian Whittell of The Telegraph, of the 20-year-old's potential as a striker.
"You’ve other players who are out-and-out number nines but as [Sterling’s] career matures I think he will show he’s got that ability," Rodgers claimed. "I think you’ll see Raheem’s numbers improve and improve as his career goes on."
Liverpool have scored three or more goals just five times in the league this season and have at times looked a dispirited side in attack without Sturridge.
Rodgers can perhaps draw a line under Sturridge as his only dependable first-team striker—as he no doubt already has with Mario Balotelli, Fabio Borini and Rickie Lambert, given their lack of appearances—and look elsewhere, both now and in the future, to find someone to provide his side with much-needed goals.
The pressure is now on Sterling, who will likely assume Sturridge's role, to help do so for the rest of the season.
Sterling's Contract
For all of Rodgers' want for Sterling to thrive in a protective and non-obtrusive environment at Liverpool, the 20-year-old has dominated the headlines for much of this season due to his ongoing and decidedly controversial contract negotiations with the club.
James Pearce of the Liverpool Echo, speaking to AnfieldIndex recently (h/t This Is Anfield), suggested that the club and Sterling's representatives have struggled to find a compromise in terms of his wage.
"I’m baffled as to how his representatives are turning their nose up at £100,000 a week. Sterling is 20 years of age," Pearce claimed. "I don’t think Liverpool will give in to £150,000 a week. Speaking to people at the club, it’s clear they have no intention to pay him that much."
To summarise: Liverpool have offered Sterling £100,000 a week, and his representatives want £150,000 a week.
By now, a host of sources have had their say on the matter.
Former Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp offered wise words, telling Sterling via talkSPORT: "Sign your contract. You are at a great club, you are playing regularly, you have become an England international, you’re learning the game."
Meanwhile former Reds star John Barnes, also speaking to talkSPORT, as reported by Carl Markham of The Independent, warned Sterling not to set unrealistically high ambitions too soon.
"I would advise any young player who has been in the game for one or one and a half years to stay and learn his trade.
"Unfortunately the bad advice often sounds the most lucrative and therefore the best advice. Has he been playing consistently well over a long time? No he hasn't and maybe his form has suffered because of the whole [contract] situation."
Sterling is a key player at Liverpool, as Barnes attests, but has he warranted £150,000 a week?
To make a direct comparison, BBC Sport's Ben Smith reported details of Sturridge's recently signed contract back in October of last year: "The new deal, which is potentially worth as much as £150,000 per week, is heavily incentivised. But if he does hit a series of performance-related targets it puts him in a similar bracket to Steven Gerrard."
With Sturridge injured, Sterling has a chance to prove himself to be a similar calibre of talent—one worthy of commanding such a wage. The club will, of course, have that money to spend due to Gerrard's departure.
Rodgers recently revealed, as reported by David Maddock and James Whaling of the Mirror, that Sterling's representatives have now made it clear that they "won’t reach agreement between now and end of season."
While this outlines that Sterling could leave if Liverpool don't meet their objectives, it also offers Sterling a significant challenge: to prove he is worth paying for.
Point to Prove
As Pearce continued his evaluation of Sterling's contract situation, he offered his own point of view in terms of the forward's worth.
"He’s not a world-class player, and although he’s potentially top class, he’s not yet the finished product," Pearce declared.
"He owes a lot to [Rodgers] for making him the player he is. Not many players of his age have played over 100 games for a top club, and if he has any sense, he will stay and sign a five-year contract. I believe that will be the case and that common sense will prevail."
At Liverpool, Sterling has flourished.
This season, he has made the same amount of key passes (2.2) on average per league game as Manchester United's £60 million summer signing Angel Di Maria.
He has made the fifth-most successful dribbles per game in the Premier League, three, behind only Eden Hazard, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alexis Sanchez and Victor Moses.
He is the third-most fouled player in the league behind only Hazard and Southampton's Sadio Mane.
Sterling is a supreme attacking talent, but questions remain over his consistency. At just 20 years old, there are also rightly questions over whether he deserves such a high wage and where he—or his representatives—would value his talents when it came to signing his next contract.
Sturridge's performance-based wage of £150,000 a week was offered based on his return of 35 goals in 54 league games for the Reds, 21 of which helped propel the Reds to a second-place finish last season.
So far, Sterling has scored just 17 goals in 88 league games for the club, although many of these appearances have come in different positions—he has started in eight different roles this term.
Given a central berth in Daniel Sturridge's absence over the next month or so, Raheem Sterling has the opportunity to prove he can play a similarly integral role for Liverpool and, more importantly, prove his true value to the club.
Statistics via WhoScored.com.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
