Raheem Sterling finally got his move from Liverpool to Manchester City this week.
City have forked out £49 million for the 20 year old making hims the most expensive footballer in Britain and the world’s most expensive player under the age of 21.
A lot of people think Liverpool have done the best out of the deal but what about City?
There’s no doubting the talent of Sterling and he’ll be surrounded by better players at City.
The England International probably upset plenty of Liverpool fans when he stated “ the thing that excites me the most is the world-class squad we have and knowing we have a team that is capable of winning things year in, year out,".
He’s got a point though and when he looks around him he’ll players like Sergio Aguero, David Silva and YaYa Toure to pass to.
Sterling has blistering pace and although his final ball can let him down sometimes he can improve on that and he’ll get more space with the movement of better players around him.
He’s already shown this at Liverpool when he played alongside Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge and Philippe Coutinho as the Merseysiders went closing to winning the Premier League title in 2014.
Liverpool were a shadow of that side last season when they really felt the loss of Suarez to Barcelona as any club would.
The injuries to Sturridge didn’t help and Balotelli just didn’t help anyone at all.
However Sterling still performed reasonably well considering how average Brendan Rodgers side were and he even operated in the centre at times as a make shift centre forward.
City will most likely use him wide on the right because I’d have him in the team ahead of Jesus Navas but Manuel Pellegrini should have no concerns letting him drift into central areas.
Sterling completed 233 dribbles last season and was just behind player of the year Eden Hazard and Yannick Bolasie in those stats.
He also scored seven goals and provided seven assists and he tends to win a lot of frees with his direct running.
Only Hazard was fouled times more than Sterling last season and only Hazard and Silva created more chances than Britain’s most expensive player.
So the stats would suggest that City have a player with potential to become one of the best players in the league but Sterling will be under huge pressure to deliver week in week out and the hefty price tag could also be a burden on such young shoulders.
