Why Raheem Sterling Could Actually Be Perfect For Arsenal Specifically
On a lackluster Transfer Deadline Day, arguably the most shocking move of the whole window was Raheem Sterling ending his brief stint in the Chelsea wilderness by reuniting with Mikel Arteta at Arsenal. But after an underwhelming spell at Stamford Bridge, is this a move that in any way benefits The Gunners in their hunt for the Premier League title.
Adam Clery looks at the sort of player Sterling is, and the sort of player Arsenal often need and says... yeah, actually.
Adam Clery looks at the sort of player Sterling is, and the sort of player Arsenal often need and says... yeah, actually.
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00:00Have you got the Sterling video ready? The Arsenal fans will eat that up after looking
00:07at the headlines on Twitter. We could potentially clip it out of this and just upload it. But
00:13that would be not very good and there's no graphical overlays for it. Michael could work
00:18his magic. Not on Saturday he couldn't. Oh yes he will. And on time too. And she's with
00:31a NFL player if I'm not mistaken. So I think she's more focused on... Oh Raheem Sterling
00:36and Arsenal. Bomber! Bomber! Get the bomber graphical! Keep your conspiracies coming in
00:44guys. It's not a bomber. It's a pre-bomber. Oh it's a pre-bomber? I'll take it. Raheem
00:49Sterling according to Fabrizio Romano. Raheem Sterling and Arsenal. Agreement between player
00:54and Arsenal now in place. Now the update on this before was they were exploring options
01:01to make it happen. But as yet no agreement between club and player and no agreement between
01:05club and club. Can I just clarify? Does the window slam shut at 11 or midnight? 11. 11?
01:1011. So there's not much time. 11. There is not much time. So Sterling has an agreement
01:15with Arsenal in place. He wants to move. Would now be a good time for me to tell you why
01:23I think Raheem Sterling to Arsenal. Brilliant. Brilliant bit of transfer business. Go on
01:28then. Take it away. Alright I will. Raheem Sterling to Arsenal. We've talked about him
01:34a couple of times on this stream already. He is, he's not become a bit of a joke but
01:40certainly the accusations of a drop off, of a fall in form, of a regression in ability.
01:47They have started in earnest during his time at Chelsea. That's rubbish. Raheem Sterling
01:53is a fantastic, fantastic footballer and should have been, probably were it not for his move
01:58to Chelsea, a shout for England's record ever cap holder. Yeah good shout. I think he had
02:04a chance of doing that. Maybe still does. How old is he? 29 turns 30 later this year.
02:09Yeah he's still got plenty of legs left in him. So Raheem Sterling. I'm going to show
02:13you, Jonny could you put up the first graph I sent you? This is kind of how Raheem Sterling
02:19plays. He was at Manchester City, largely under Pep Guardiola, where he was kind of
02:25a bit of a moments player. When Aguero played he effectively became a bit of a second striker.
02:30When Aguero didn't play he actually became the de facto striker and you saw during his
02:35time in England he played a very similar role with Harry Kane. Harry Kane was a step forward.
02:39Raheem Sterling would float around and look to finish moves. He plays in a team that's
02:44technically very able and creates a lot of chances but Sterling doesn't really do that.
02:48He doesn't want to drop. He doesn't want to get involved too much in the build up. He
02:50gets into optimum positions for scoring goals and takes them. Now he's never been a great
02:56finisher. Adam I'm sure you'd agree with that. Yes only at the back post. Never been an elite
03:00finisher but I would argue... He's not even a good man. He's not a good man. No, no, no.
03:05However what he does have that few players possess is almost unrivaled movement within
03:10the box. He puts himself in positions where he can almost never miss the chance. I would
03:16go so far as a 7th or 8th chance. That's how good he is. You put him through one on one
03:21situations or give him chances that you expect elite centre forward to take, he doesn't take
03:25those and it's where a lot of the criticism comes from. And he scores so many tap ins
03:29because that's actually where his strength is. It's in his movement. His ability to find
03:34that space where another centre forward takes a defender away to find that. And if you look
03:38at these numbers, that kind of sort of backs that up. He carries the ball but he doesn't
03:43touch it in the middle of the pitch. He doesn't touch it in the defensive third. He just gets
03:46involved in the final third to finish off moves. Now Chelsea, as we already discussed
03:52last season, we'll get rid of that graph. Chelsea as we already discussed last season,
03:56they were not a side capable of putting on a lot of chances for a centre forward. They
03:59did supply a bit to Nicholas Jackson, but by and large, the majority of their chances,
04:03the majority of their goals, they came about through individual endeavour. Cole Palmer
04:09doing things, players doing things. It did not suit Raheem Sterling at all. But those,
04:15the numbers you've just seen, they were still his numbers from last season. He was still
04:18able to get involved in the final third, still good at take on, still good at going past
04:21players, still that classic Raheem Sterling. Now, Adam Monk, do you remember which season
04:28Raheem Sterling scored the most amount of goals in his career?
04:322018 to 2019. No, 1920.
04:35Yeah, he actually got it. That's really good. Yeah, 2019, 2020.
04:38Yeah, it was the year of 2019 that he scored like 50.
04:40He got 31 goals in all competitions. Now how many players do that ever?
04:45Not many.
04:46Not many.
04:46That's Mo Salah numbers.
04:47That's Mo Salah numbers. And again, not because he's an elite finisher, not because he was
04:51the main man at Manchester City, but because his movement around the box for finishing chances
04:55was so good, he put himself in a position 31 times where he simply could not miss. Now,
05:02it doesn't work at Chelsea, but Arsenal are a different team entirely. And Arsenal,
05:06we'll just go to the pitch here, please, are very much still in the mould, in my opinion,
05:11of that old Guardiola side.
05:13I can buy that.
05:14The pre-Harland era, where their centre forward's not really a centre forward,
05:18and they are reliant on dynamic movement across the pitch to create chances. Now,
05:22I think if Raheem Sterling goes to Arsenal, I don't think he starts. I don't think you're
05:26bringing him in there to improve the first 11. But Arsenal last season, the games where they fell down
05:32were the games where Havert's movement outside the box and Saka coming in here,
05:36possibly Trossard going in there, Declan Rice making these runs, all of this stuff
05:40was insufficient to break down determined low blocks and back lines. Because without
05:46a dedicated centre forward, without a natural sort of finisher in all this,
05:50Arsenal can struggle. Now, we saw Leandro Trossard really step up coming in from the
05:53left-hand side and finding himself in optimum positions to take chances. Now, he's not a
06:00natural centre forward, Leandro Trossard, but he was doing very well in those roles.
06:04Now, I put it to you, Adam Monk.
06:06Go on.
06:07If you put Raheem Sterling in that left-sided position and you had him perform that role
06:12that Leandro Trossard was doing, the team's already camped in their own box. It's already
06:16a case of just, can you find the space and can you finish off the chance? Raheem Sterling is
06:20almost as perfect a profile of player as you could possibly want. Not in an open game,
06:26not when it's tied, not when the game's going back and forward, but when Arsenal have got
06:30the other team penned in, they need a goal desperately. Raheem Sterling floating around
06:35the box, finding those pockets in between the players, but cutbacks for loose balls.
06:39Do you know what I would argue? So I think Trossard, maybe you'd get more goals from
06:43those situations. Sterling, maybe the best player in Premier League history in those
06:46situations at winning penalties. Food for thought.
06:50Yeah, that as well.
06:51Sterling goes down and he wins them.
06:53I think Trossard is an overall better finisher in the way you'd expect a classic centre-forward
06:59to finish chances, which has obviously been Sterling's historic weakness. But I think
07:03purely on that movement, getting into the box, floating around, not worrying about your
07:08role coming in from the left, just making sure you are in the right position when that
07:12ball falls. I don't think there's any players in the Premier League better out of them,
07:15Raheem Sterling.
07:16Yeah, I could get on board with that. So Cool Running Media, he's basically said that you're
07:20chatting Patty Adam again.
07:22That's good. We decided that was good though. We decided that was good. Thank you.
07:25He said he did nothing for us at Chelsea, but he's talking about his time at City to
07:31reply to you. He's talking about the time at City and how our Teta and his system at
07:35Arsenal is akin to Manchester City's old system, which Sterling was in.
07:38If we could just bring up the second graph for you here.
07:42Boom.
07:42The eagle-eyed amongst you may notice that that's barely changed one little bit. In fact,
07:49that looks like the exact same bloody graph. That's because Raheem Sterling is still the
07:53exact same player. The only thing that's changed between his time at Manchester City and at
07:57Chelsea is that the overall goalscoring numbers have dropped right off because the chances
08:01being created for him no longer suit the kind of player that he is. He still gets on the
08:06ball in the right part of the pitch. He still carries it well. He still progresses it well.
08:10He still receives a lot of progressive passes, meaning that he is getting into good positions
08:13up the pitch and being found by his teammates. I think that Raheem Sterling going to Arsenal
08:21would be good for Raheem Sterling, probably getting back in the England side. And I also
08:24think there are going to be times this season where you will look at Arsenal packing out
08:31a box, being camped around the opposition area, having all the players making these
08:35runs, doing these things. You saw it loads that season and getting absolutely nowhere.
08:39I think there will be moments in that season, decisive moments potentially, where a Raheem
08:44Sterling type of figure, like for example, Raheem Sterling, would get that goal that
08:50Arsenal can't normally find. I'd agree with that. He's also proven it at City. He had
08:54so many clutch goals in that Centurion season, last minute against Bournemouth, Southampton,
08:58Huddersfield, all late daggers. Well, all those Arsenal fans that have met,
09:03all those Arsenal fans that have met IRL, who've been like, do you think Arsenal need
09:07a striker? Look in the mirror, my friends. You're living it. This is the striker. You're
09:13not going to go buy a 40 goals a season centre forward who's going to change your entire
09:18outlook on football and change Mikel Arteta's entire season. What you can get is somebody
09:23who in those clutch moments that you think might cost you the league will pop up at the
09:28right place at the right time. Raheem Sterling does that. And it's no coincidence that he
09:32does it so reliably. I am all over this. And I'm not just all over this, by the way,
09:37because it feels like the only interesting transfer that's going to happen at all across
09:40the rest of the evening. It's not disingenuous. I would be excited about this regardless of
09:44what was going on. Yeah. I mean, no bomber on Arsenal. I feel like I'm being unnecessarily
09:47intense here. What does this mean for Martinelli? A few people are asking that.
09:53It's a good question. Obviously, as we've talked about already with Arsenal's options
09:56at the back, Julian Timber, Calafiore coming into what is already a fairly settled back
10:01line. They've said they don't want to let Kiwio go. So he's going to be there. Technically,
10:05if you think Timber's more or less there to play left back, Arsenal now have four choices
10:10there when you think about it, because Gabriel Saliba, you're not going to use it. There's
10:13no reason to change Ben White, although you could, I suppose, rotate him with Timber,
10:16depending on the situation. But Calafiore is there, Kiwio's there, Timber's there.
10:20Zinchenko is still. Zinchenko's still there. Arsenal have the biggest glaring weakness
10:27of any of the teams who are threatening for a title this year, and that weakness is depth.
10:32They have been, in my opinion, so fortunate with injuries the last two seasons.
10:37We saw how tired Bukayo Saka looked at the end of last season. Declan Rice
10:41run himself into the ground. Erdogan run himself into the ground. They play every single week.
10:46And if you look at Man City last season, they lost Kevin De Bruyne right at the start.
10:50He missed, what, three, four months? Fairly substantial chunk.
10:53Came back in January.
10:54But the thing about being injured, right, so long as it isn't the kind of injury that affects
10:58the way you play and affects your body, you actually come back incredibly refreshed.
11:01You had a great break, if nothing else. And Pep Guardiola's proven several times in the past
11:05he's not afraid to rotate things, to drop players when he needs to. He gives the players the breaks
11:10they need. But Arsenal simply do not have the quality outside the first 11 to be able to do
11:17that and still think they're going to challenge for a title. Erdogan almost always, I've got
11:21them in the wrong formation here. Silly me. Erdogan has to play. Declan Rice has to play,
11:26depending on where he is. Mikhail Saga has to play. Saliba has to play. Ben White has to play.
11:31Like, there's not got the options outside of that. But now, but now, Calafiore, Timber,
11:36you can start to make these little changes here and there. Gabriel Martinelli, absolutely fine.
11:40Sterling, absolutely fine.
11:40I remember they got Gabriel Jesus as well, who just underperformed on an individual basis last
11:45season, really.
11:46I would argue, I'm just going to try and do this in my head now, right. A second Arsenal 11,
11:50right. Neto, just come in now. Tommy Yasu.
11:55Yes.
11:55Tommy Yasu.
11:58Timber.
11:59Let's say Timber left back, Calafiore centre-back. Kyrgios.
12:03Yeah.
12:04He could go with that. Ultimate number six, Partey, probably come in.
12:07Partey.
12:07Jorginho, whoever you don't particularly want to play. Smith-Rowe would have been great for this,
12:10but obviously they've sold him. Who's your two other eights? They're struggling for that eight
12:13position, aren't they?
12:14Yeah, they're struggling for that eight.
12:15OK, well, let's skip that.
12:17They did have Fabio Vieira, but he's just gone.
12:19He's just gone. So let's say, who on the right then?
12:23So I think Sterling could play that. I don't think you made a case for that.
12:25Yeah.
12:26Yeah, we could, yeah, yeah. But you wouldn't, yeah.
12:28Yeah.
12:29So Sterling, Martinelli.
12:31Yeah.
12:31Gabriel Jesus.
12:33Yeah.
12:33You're missing really one eight there, and you've got a really solid second 11,
12:36I think, for the first time since Arsenal have been a title team.
12:39I'd bet that.
12:40Maybe they're missing an eight, but they've certainly got Marino. Sorry, we forgot them.
12:44Oh, yeah.
12:44Yeah, Marino's not going to get in that first 11. So yeah, I actually think,
12:47Arsenal now have got the kind of depth you need to go and win the league.
12:51So yeah.
12:52We've also got Ethan Nguanieri coming through.
12:54He is meant to be very, very good at the academy.
12:57Yeah, well, there you go. Yeah, Marino.
12:59How are we saying it? Nguan.
13:00Nguanieri.
13:01Nguanieri.
13:02Not like Claudio Nguanieri.
13:03Yeah, Marino Nguanieri.
13:04Yeah, a couple of Arsenal fans.
13:05Right, that's the Raheem Sterling thing.
13:09Anyway, thank you so much, everybody, for joining us here on Football Team.
13:11The subscribe button is there.
13:12I don't know whether it's worth commenting on streams.
13:16This is entirely out of my wheelhouse.
13:18But that has been one of the weirdest transfer deadline days I have ever seen.
13:25God bless you, Jadon Sancho.
13:27All the best, Raheem Sterling.
13:28And my condolences, Victor Osherman.
13:31We are leaving now.
13:34Bye.
13:35Goodbye.