The pitch looked terrible and the match was patchy but the Manchester City forward showed what a top performer he isRaheem Sterling spent a fair amount of his childhood dodging potholes and wrong‑footing passers-by as he kicked a ball around Wembley. So no real change there on a strange night when Manchester City eked out a brittle, angsty 1-0 win against a brittle, angsty Tottenham team in front of a brittle, angsty Tottenham crowd.It is hard to think of many stranger Premier League fixtures than this, though this 1-0 victory for the champions was strange in an understated, slightly dreamy kind of way. For most of the first half it was almost impossible to look past the wretched spectacle of...
The Manchester City forward looked almost carefree in Spain and Gareth Southgate’s team need to keep this upEngland delivered an impressive display against Spain on Monday and it was kickstarted by a fine opening goal from Raheem Sterling. I was delighted for him. Few, if any, players have had to put up with as much negative energy from the media in recent years as Sterling and this was his way of showing that despite it all he still has what it takes to score goals for England.A huge part of Sterling’s burden in an England shirt has been dealing with all the critics. That is part of being a professional footballer but the scrutiny on Sterling has gone too far....
The Manchester United forward may have pushed his case ahead of Sterling as a poor Switzerland were beaten 1-0There were times when, at best, this felt like a persuasive argument for all things Nations League. Uefa’s brainchild at least provides a competitive edge at a time of year when international friendlies are prone to drift, while ring-rusty players attempt to summon some rhythm before the glut of second-half replacements disrupts the tempo still further.Gareth Southgate must have surveyed the scene at the interval and, Danny Rose’s energy and the odd flash of incision from Marcus Rashford aside, wondered if this whole exercise had any discernible merit. The realist in him saw it coming, of course. He knew he had picked...
Great World Cup sides of the past have been built around ego-free forwards and Sterling’s cunning is utterly irreplaceableIn the minds of those who watched them win the 1970 World Cup, Mário Zagallo’s Brazil still represents the fulfilment of all the seldom-kept promises of international football. The mere mention of their star players – Pelé, Jairzinho, Roberto Rivelino, Carlos Alberto – conjures images of suave magic under the Mexican sun. But there was one player, a little less celebrated, without whom their triumph would have been much harder to achieve.Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade, known as Tostão, was a 23-year-old centre-forward who had appeared fleetingly in Brazil’s 1966 campaign in England while still a teenager. Four years later he arrived with...
The forward – who has been attracting all the scrutiny, from tattoos to timekeeping – gave his manager reason for encouragement in the 2-1 victory against NigeriaRaheem Sterling might not have played here and would have accepted missing out. Gareth Southgate’s original intention had been to leave the forward out for the friendly against Nigeria as punishment for a tardy arrival at the national squad’s training camp last month.Yet, in the context of the player coming “under fire from every other direction” over the last week, the manager recognised this was the time to stand by his man. The protective shield flung down around one of their own is starting to feel like an indication of England’s strength. Related: England...