Originally published in print. Issue 193 of Red All Over The Land Fanzine
Sterling Support
I wanted to write an article in support of Raheem Sterling.
To be honest, I’ve found it hard to motivate myself to do so… but I am
determined, so here we go…
I should imagine like a lot of Liverpool fans at the moment,
I currently see Sterling as a little bit of a frustration. He burst on to the
scene as an extremely exciting and talented young player, only to be over-hyped
and perhaps over-played before retreating to the doldrums of reserve team and
U21 football – which in fairness, is where you’d expect most players of his age
to be!
We are a strange bunch at times, us Liverpool fans. We pride
ourselves on being different… being a supportive crowd, patient, with the
ability to support a player in a red shirt whatever their age, nationality or
path in football. Yet sometimes, we seem to let ourselves down and throw all of
that out of the window. It seems that every now and then, a player comes along
that Liverpool fans just don’t ‘take to.’ Deep down, we just don’t seem to LIKE
them. Moses is another one of our current crop currently experiencing that very
malaise. Although in Victor’s case, I'm inclined to say it’s justified.
Sterling’s rise to prominence and indeed promise was so fast
that now we seem to be blaming him for not living up to his own hype. In
reality, the position he finds himself in now, is a completely natural one.
Having just turned 19 he is getting some valuable first team action, showing
some promise and developing.
However, most of the Anfield crowd currently don’t seem to
see it like that. We are expecting him to come out and score wonder goals,
terrorise defences and beat 2 or 3 players every time he has the ball. It is no
wonder that he is looking a bit hesitant.
But I think that there is something that lies deeper in our
current frustration with him… I’m just not sure that we like him. Is it perhaps
because after showing such initial promise we heard rumours of him falling into
the trap of being an overpaid, over-hyped and not highly intelligent young
footballer… getting himself into scrapes with the police and the odd scouse
hood rat? It’s not the sort of behaviour we like to see from our young players
– we’re much more forgiving of a hard-working and seemingly ‘nice’ lad like
Henderson. Is it also perhaps that he’s a Londoner? And there’s just something
about that which we can’t take to. Is it also perhaps because he runs a little
bit like a camp duck… and deep down we just suspect that he doesn’t fancy it in
a 50/50? We assume he’s lightweight and easy to shove off the ball. We’re not
convinced he tracks back… we’re not sure how much he REALLY cares.
Who knows, maybe we’re right? You can’t escape he does run
strangely... and he hasn’t yet got the bullish strength and centre of gravity
of Coutinho. But let’s not forget, Coutinho is a good 2 or 3 years older and
with much more experience.
Sterling is showing some promising signs again; let’s not
crush the poor lad through our slightly lazy prejudices and wild assumptions.
They may well all be right… but as Liverpool fans, it’s not in our nature not
to give a player a chance and one thing is for certain, if we don’t get off his
back a bit… he certainly won’t turn into the player we all hope he can be.
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