Wednesday 28 September 2016 14:03, UK
Raheem Sterling looks much improved under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City. Ahead of the game at Celtic that sees Sterling reunited with Brendan Rodgers, the manager who gave him his debut, Adam Bate looks at how the winger has kicked on again this season…
"Reborn," Raheem Sterling told Sky Sports after a 3-1 win over West Ham last month in which he scored twice. "I keep seeing that word." Keep playing like this and the Manchester City winger shouldn't expect to stop seeing it any time soon.
As well as that brace against West Ham, Sterling has also scored in a 4-0 win over Bournemouth and added a further goal - the pick of the bunch - in another 3-1 victory at Swansea on Saturday. It was the work of a young man playing with real confidence.
Sterling could be forgiven for feeling the talk of his demise had been grossly exaggerated anyway, a victim of the relative apathy that engulfed Manuel Pellegrini's final season at City coupled with the malaise that continues to afflict the England national team.
After all, Sterling did match his best ever goal tally in his first season following his £49m move from Liverpool. Perhaps that price tag alone explains why progress - and nothing but progress - seems to be tolerated from a player who is still only 21 years old.
It was, as Sterling suggested, a "bit unfair" but only in the context of the huge expectations his talent encourages. With pace and trickery at his disposal, Sterling has a knack of gliding beyond opponents and a fragile frame that hints at a potential for vast improvement.
He'd given rather more than a glimpse of his capabilities under Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool, playing his part in the team's tilt at the title in 2013/14. This week he'll face the man who gave him that opportunity as City take on Celtic in the Champions League.
Rodgers agrees that Sterling's career has "drifted" in recent times but, tellingly, suggests that such a state of affairs will not continue. "You can see he's being coached," said the Celtic boss. And that's surely the crux of it where Sterling is concerned.
Pep Guardiola's arrival at City means many things for the Premier League this season, but among the more interesting prospects is the world's premier coach working with the most exciting talents in the country.
Much of the initial excitement has focused on how a ball-playing defender such as John Stones might flourish, but the early indications are that the future for Sterling could be every bit as intriguing. Right from the outset, Guardiola identified him as a priority.
"From the beginning I had a feeling this guy is good," he said. There was a phone call of support at the height of Sterling's Euro 2016 struggles and reports of reassuring conversations with coach Rodolfo Borrell, a man who'd worked with the player at Liverpool.
Initially, the emphasis was on instilling confidence in a youngster under pressure - one in danger of being stifled by a critical media and a hostile public. Guardiola spoke of wanting to "work with him and show him how good a player he is" first and foremost.
He added: "I spoke with him the same as I spoke with the rest of the players to say what we are looking for. Encourage, go out and play one against one, two against one. It doesn't matter if you lose the ball, we are there to sustain you. So just play.
"The people who have the quality to dribble have to dribble. The people who have the quality to beat a man with a pass, they have to do that. I like the wingers. I love to play the wingers. They play to go wide and take a risk in the last part of the field."
These words indicate that it's not merely a case of infusing Sterling with belief and ensuring he's engaged. Those are the precursors to success. As Rodgers has suggested, Guardiola's ultimate focus is on getting players to do the right things on the pitch. It's about coaching.
Guardiola might love wingers but his demands are specific. "He used to call it the three Ps," Thierry Henry told Sky Sports. "Play, possession and position. The most important one was position. You have to stay and trust your team-mates in order for the ball to come to you."
Shape is everything for Guardiola. "We need that," he said recently. "People who stay wide and have the quality one against one." It's only in the final third of the field that he expects players to go and express themselves. For players like Sterling to make the difference.
You start in a high position and wide but after that, in the last third, you can do whatever you want. He used to say to us, 'My job is to bring you up to the last third, your job is to finish it'.
"That's when the freedom starts to come, in the last third," added Henry. "You start in a high position and wide but after that, in the last third, you can do whatever you want. He used to say to us, 'My job is to bring you up to the last third, your job is to finish it'."
The use of players like Henry and David Villa in the wide positions at Barcelona highlights how Guardiola sees his wingers. They need to be goalscorers too. And that's an aspect of Sterling's game that hasn't always been the strongest.
So far, it's gone well though. His neat finish against Swansea was impressive and he'll need to keep putting those opportunities away. Sergio Aguero seems certain to be the team's top scorer this season but the statistics show that it's Sterling who has had the most clear-cut chances of any City player.
That's partially because Guardiola's work on shape is designed to isolate wide men against their markers. They're expected to use that advantage. "He's even had a go at me in the first half for not dribbling as much as I should do," said Sterling after the West Ham game.
"The coach is someone that, if you lose the ball after a one-on-one, won't be angry with you," he added. "He'll always encourage you to continue by saying to you that if you don't get by once, twice, three times, you'll get by the next time. It removes pressure.
"In the game, when you're faced by two or three players, you know that there's a risk of losing the ball. But you know that the coach understands that risk. From the start of the season, I remember him telling me after a match, 'Don't ever stop yourself from dribbling'."
Sterling's numbers so far this season reflect that. He's averaging 3.88 completed dribbles per 90 minutes in the Premier League in 2016/17. That's more than double the amount of successful dribbles he was managing last season under Pellegrini.
With 22 completed dribbles, there are only two players - Adnan Januzaj and Eden Hazard - who've beaten their man more often in the Premier League this season. However, those raw numbers only tell part of the story. It's where Sterling's been doing it that's significant.
No fewer than 10 of Sterling's completed dribbles have come within the opposition area. Remarkably, that's more than the other half a dozen top dribblers in the country combined. In defensive areas, Sterling maintains the shape. In the danger areas, he attacks his man.
Show the player you trust him. Give him confidence. Ensure the instructions are straightforward and the demands are clear, but allow them to express themselves. It's proving an effective recipe. As Sterling put it recently: "Pep makes it simple."
Guardiola sees it the same way. "He has just focused on his job," said the coach. "That's it. When that happens he is going to do good things for us and the England national team. I'm pretty sure of that." The evidence so far would suggest he's right.
