The Mailbox suggests why Raheem Sterling won’t succeed at Chelsea. Also: Barcelona’s antics; and you can’t be a snowflake and reach the highest level.
Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…
Sceptical of Sterling switch
With Sterling’s move to Chelsea all but confirmed, I’ve been surprised at how it has been presented by the media – generally as quite the coup for Chelsea and a transfer that will, by and large, turn out to be successful. I’d have to pretty strongly disagree and I don’t think you have to look too deeply to find reasons to be concerned if you’re a Chelsea fan.
Sterling cut his teeth and rose to prominence playing as a part of one of the most prolific attacking outfits in Premier League history; Brendan Rodger’s Liverpool team in a front free alongside Suarez and Sturridge, where he was the third most significant goal threat and largely benefited from defences focussing on stopping the other two. Off the back of that he moves to Man City to play under one of the most progressive managers in history in Pep Guardiola, playing alongside creative geniuses with the likes of De Bruyne and David Silva, and then again benefiting from the presence of a vastly superior goal threat in Aguero who will again take the focus of opposition defences. In Guardiola’s team he has played in a system where he is presented with a gluttony of chances in most games he plays.
Contrast this with the situation he is going into with Chelsea, which I think you can compare to the situation he goes into with England – where he is expected to be a much more significant focal point of the attack, more of the attack flows through him and he has a much larger creative and goal scoring burden than he is with City and Liverpool. And as a result, his output and performances for England have not come close to matching those of his clubs. At Chelsea, there is no one in the attack to take the focus of the defence and Tuchel’s much more pragmatic system will be in stark difference to everything he has played in at club level to date
I also think that just looking at the state of affairs should raise an eyebrow. You have City and Guardiola, a team who are currently paying Scott Carson to basically do nothing but count against the English squad numbers because they are so desperate for them, voluntarily selling an England international who at the age of 27 should be coming into his prime, to a team that most pundits and fans would consider a…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Football365…