Haha - I noticed that after I posted my reply. Just couldn't be arse to edit it Great prospect never the less.
Sorry to throw a little cold water on things. Sterling still is work in progress. If you want to compare him to Digger then you have to compare him to the Barnes who played as an out and out winger for Watford and scored that mazy goal for England in Brazil. After he came to Liverpool, Barnes began to evolve his game to become the amazing player he eventually went on to be (far more than a tricky/pacey winger). As for Sterling himself, he needs to be managed very carefully both on and off the pitch. For his own wellbeing then I would like to see him get 15-20 games.
He sure is. There is quite a few in the u21s and u18s. Jerome Sinclair at just 15 is making great strides in the under 18s, and there is Jordan Ibe, who I believe is fantastic and he's only 16.
The future is exciting, hopefully successful. Would be a far greater achievement to win the league one day with invested youth than buying the title a la Chelsea and City. I fear it will be the money clubs preventing this from happening.
Of course the kid needs looking after to a certain extent but I'd 100% play him against Arsenal I was so impressed with the kid yesterday. He worked hard on and off the ball, has excellent speed and most importantly acceleration, went both inside and outside KT to the extent that he looked dizzy at one point and took the tough challenges without rolling around and diving like a tart. I don't expect him to start every game but while he's flying like that then I see no reason to rest him so early in the season.
That's because on the XBox players don't get a crisis of confidence and don't have to learn how to handle success, how to handle being kicked out of the game and how to handle the abuse from fans they don't get in the U18s. I'm not one for the simple solutions and wash your hands of them when they fail. Sheesh, Lucas was 22 and muppets compared him to Alonso at 28! it's funny, i.e. not really, that everybody's shouting about patience for Rodgers but U18s should be thrown to the lions. The only reason he's playing as he is now is because we had a good academy developing him properly and easing him in. Let's just hope he's not another Owen who fecks off as soon as the big money beckons.
Talking of Digger and his ambassadorial role in the club, I hope he's mentoring the youngsters like Raheem and the others coming through.
Was impressed with him but we do need to remember he's only 17. There is no way he should be playing every game at the moment. 15-20 starts this season with a few sub appearences will benefit him more in the long run than say 30-40 starts. Look at Owen as a prime example. Young, speedy player who came in, played loads of games at a young age and then was plagued with injures for the rest of his career. He needs to be managed physically and I'm sure Rodgers knows this. Also, those talking about Assaidi being ahead of Downing - he hasn't even kicked a ball for us yet. He needs to prove that he's good enough to get into the first team before we start putting him ahead of certain player (no matter how badly they have underperformed so far).
You really don't have to be so patronising when you post you know He might well be another Owen but as yet you have no evidence to suggest he will be so let's give him a chance. How did guys like Robbie and Owen toughen themselves up? They did that by playing with the real men. Yes we over played them in their early years but we used them for league games AND cup games AND European games. Robbie played something ridiculous like 130 odd games in his first three seasons and Owen something like 120. No one is suggesting we play Sterling that much in fact even those of us who want to see him in the first team as much as is reasonable know he shouldn't play every game. We absolutely shouldn't over play him but you can't tell me by playing him in the reserves he isn't going to come up against players who'll smash him around a bit given half a chance.
I thought he was quite good, nothing spectacular. Its been overexaggerated a little because he is so young. He did show promise, I agree, but I do not think he is the answer yet, he needs a few more years experience under his belt before becoming the undisputed first choice. Feel we still need another quality winger in the window regardless of Sterling's performance.
Put it this way, if we said that about michael owen v wimbledon then tossed him in the ressies for a while then we'd have really missed out. Sterlings debut was great... what is spectacular then? hat trick ala patrick berger or some such? I was most delighted to see him cope with the entire 90 mins and not be bullied by anyone.. he'll improve on that i'm sure.
If you really want to stretch that it was him that was doing the bullying! Boy couldn't get a call yesterday!
C'mon you honestly can't put him back in the reserves. He'll get pissed off and look to be sold, he's too good for reserve football.
