RAHEEM STERLING looked like the obvious man to turn to when David Silva was crocked.
The England star who cost Manchester City almost £50million in the summer seemed a like-for-like replacement to try and break down Real Madrid.
Instead it was Kelechi Iheanacho who was summoned from the bench by Manuel Pellegrini, with the Nigeria forward part of an attack that included Jesus Navas but no Sterling.
Like all players with big aspirations, Sterling would have desperately wanted to start in a big game last night.
He missed out on starting at the Bernabeu last season while at Liverpool, when Brendan Rodgers changed up his line-up and kept Sterling, Steven Gerrard and Philippe Coutinho on the bench until the second half.
At face value, it appeared to be a blow for Sterling at the Etihad on City’s biggest night of European football in their new Abu Dhabi era – but there are reasons to be positive for the 21-year-old too.
Pellegrini’s policy is to ease his explosive forwards back to action rather than thrust them back into the first team like he does with Vincent Kompany.
With players like Sergio Aguero and Sterling, Pell prefers to give them 20 minutes first, then an hour, before sending them out at full-tilt.
Sterling is actually AHEAD of schedule on his return from his groin injury.
When he went off in the derby against Manchester United last month he was expected to be out for six weeks, meaning Pellegrini was planning for him to be available around now.
The ex-QPR youngster got his 20 minutes against Newcastle last week, followed by his shorter appearance against Real when he replaced Navas for the last 13 minutes.
With more game time against Southampton on Sunday, trying to break the deadlock at the Bernabeu could come at the right time in terms of Sterling’s fitness.
It looks like Silva will miss the second leg so Sterling must come into contention for the trip to the Spanish capital.
If Pellegrini feels he has better options than the player City splashed out on, then all is not lost.
Early signs are that Pep Guardiola likes the idea of working with Sterling and making him an even better player.
Guardiola’s emphasis on forward players is to be able to interchange positions all across the front line. Thomas Muller at Bayern Munich is an example of that.
And Sterling is seen as player with those capabilities plus the pace that the new City boss wants from his attackers.
You would expect Sterling to get his chance in the big European matches from the start, even if it isn’t this week.
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