Despite the furore of a Wembley cup final crowd, Kepa Arrizabalaga’s refusal to come off and the chance to put his name in lights once more, there was probably just one sound Raheem Sterling heard as he stepped up to take his League Cup-winning penalty against Chelsea.
The tap-tap-tap of keyboards as his harshest detractors lined up their latest barrage of criticism had to be ringing in the England international’s ears.
But instead of wilting under the pressure, Sterling stepped up and fired an emphatic strike into the top corner (with a little help from the woodwork) to keep Pep Guardiola on the path to an unprecedented quadruple.
Go back 18 months and Sterling may well have blazed that spot-kick into the Wembley stands. But the man we see donning the sky blue now is a different animal altogether. Time has given the 24-year-old experience; experience has given him fortitude.
A player who scored 21 times in his first 94 club appearances at City has refined his finishing, sharpened his mind and now moves with an intelligence possessed by very few peers, resulting in 38 goals for Sterling across his last 80 games.
Since the start of last season, Raheem Sterling has scored 12 goals in or after the 80th minute, including five winners and an equaliser.
— Richard Jolly (@RichJolly) February 20, 2019
Which only tells half the story. Because, as was observed last week after the Schalke win, Sterling’s goals often offer more than sheen to the high scorelines City tend to rack up.
‘A winning player’
Sterling’s teammates and manager are beginning to publicly acknowledge him as someone who frequently comes good at ‘clutch’ moments, a term borrowed from US sports to describe game-changers who thrive in high-pressure situations.
This season in the league he has netted 12 times in the top flight. Four of those have been openers, and five of them have given City the lead.
When City thrashed Southampton 6-1 in November, Sterling scored two goals and provided a further two for his teammates, adding to the growing sense of admiration that followed his double in England’s 3-2 win over Spain a month beforehand.
“I have the feeling he is now enjoying scoring goals and making assists and being important in winning games,” Guardiola said of Sterling after that game, adding: “He is becoming a winning player.”
That ‘winning player’ sentiment has only gained credence since then. Sterling’s penalty on Sunday came days after he had latched onto a ridiculous 90th-minute Ederson pass to give City a priceless 3-2 away win over Schalke in the Champions League.
In the space of just one week, the 47-time England international has given City a precious lifeline in Europe and delivered their first trophy in what could be a historic season.
The most important English player?
Harry Kane’s goals may take all the headlines, but it’s worth noting that Sterling, a winger, is just three goals behind his 15 in the Premier League this season.
On the pitch for England, the pair form a brilliantly dynamic partnership, with one dropping off to create space, and the other exploiting it to devastating effect.
But where Kane won the plaudits from his Golden Boot-winning performance at the 2018 World Cup, Sterling still found himself scapegoated.
Now, though, the conversation is starting to turn.
“Heading to Forest-Derby. Stopping en route to write a column on why Raheem Sterling is the most important footballer in the country,” the Times’ Henry Winter tweeted on Monday.
Meanwhile, teammate Kevin De Bruyne has lauded the former Liverpool man’s ability to keep raising his game, season after season.
“The way he decides games for us is really [important] and hopefully he keeps doing it,” he said on Sunday.
According to Sterling, Guardiola was unable to watch that final penalty against Chelsea. But while the tension may have gotten to his manager, the fact Sterling was selected to take the fifth spot-kick – which is frequently thought to be the most decisive – conveys immense faith from the City boss. There’s a reason Cristiano Ronaldo always insists on going last in shoot-outs, after all.
And in Sterling’s case, it was the latest exhibit in a growing stack of evidence suggesting Sterling has come to be seen as Guardiola’s, and English football’s, true talisman.
The post Stone-cold Raheem Sterling is becoming English football’s most ‘clutch’ player appeared first on Squawka News.
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