Chelsea has finally agreed terms with Manchester City for Raheem Sterling ahead of his move to Stamford Bridge. Suffice it to say, many supporters are excited about the transfer. There have been debates about Sterling and his suitability with what the Blues trying to do, but before diving into that, it’s time to learn about Raheem Sterling the person. Further, what will Chelsea be getting in the 27 year-old Jamaican-born Englishman and how does he affect its attacking fortunes?
1. History
Sterling was born in Jamaica in December 1994. He started his youth career at Alpha and Omega FC, where he spent four years. He then went on to spend seven years at Queens Park Rangers before moving to Liverpool‘s academy in 2010. He went on to spend two years there before graduating to the Reds’ senior team in 2012.
Sterling has always been prolific with his most memorable season at Anfield being the 2013/14 campaign, where he tallied 23 goal contributions in 39 appearances—16 of them coming in the Premier League. The Reds challenged convincingly for the league title that season thanks to heroics from Sterling and Luis Suarez. They lost the title in the final stages of the season as they fumbled their last three games though. The versatile winger also hit 21 goals and assists the following season, with 15 of them coming in the English top flight.
It goes without saying that Sterling has clearly always been prolific, especially for a winger.
Sterling joined Man City in July 2015, a season before Pep Guardiola arrived at the Etihad. He has enjoyed some serious success on the sky blue half of Manchester. In the Premier League alone, he has been nothing less than highly productive. In eight seasons with the Citizens, Sterling reached the 20 goal-plus-assist mark three times and crossed the 15 goal-plus-assist threshold five times. He now wraps up his career with Man City with a total of 131 goals and 95 assists.
Furthermore, Sterling won 10 major trophies with the Citizens, including four Premier League titles and four League Cups. There is seldom a player more familiar to Chelsea fans that gets previewed in these pieces than Sterling. The Blues are getting a player with a plethora of Premier League experience in the Englishman.
2. Is he any good?
Oh, he’s good—he’s very good. Starting with Sterling’s biggest strength, it’s his movement off the ball, which is why he gets on the end of many high quality chances. This puts the veteran in a position to score many goals per season, as Man City creates so many high quality chances per game. The narrative that Sterling is incredibly wasteful is false and nothing could be further from the truth.
At 47.4% non-penalty big-chance conversion rate, Sterling is up there with Romelu Lukaku in terms of how trustworthy they are with big chances. While that’s not something Blues fans may want to hear right now, it’s an impressive feature. Sterling is not much of a creator, and a majority of his career points to him being the one that solely gets on the end of chances. Sterling is lightening quick. Combine this with his intelligence and superb dribbling ability, and he is a nightmare for any defense to deal with. Sterling’s qualities complemented Man City perfectly as it has many shot and goal creators.
Sterling’s numbers speak for themselves. He has made 320 appearances in the Premier League up to this point, at just 27. The fact that a top manager in Guardiola trusted him so much over the years is an indication of how well Sterling assimilates and executes instructions. Sterling has not only gathered over 300 appearances in the Premier League, he has also racked up over 75 caps for England, as well. His intelligent movement has not only helped him get goals for club, but also for country, as the Englishman is one shy of 20 international goals. Sterling was key for England in the 2018 World Cup where the Three Lions reached the semifinal stage. He’s racked up over 100 Premier League goals and 55 top flight assists, so there is no question about whether or not Chelsea is getting a top player.
It is important to mention though that, despite the Englishman’s impressive goal record, he has only over-performed his expected goals (xG) twice in the last eight seasons. This emphasizes just how good the Citizens were at creating chances for him, but it also means Sterling should not be expected to score many goals if he doesn’t get the corresponding amount of chances. Sterling should not be expected to over-perform his expected goals with the Blues until they address their chance-creation issues.
3. What does this mean for Chelsea’s forwards?
Guardiola’s willingness to trust Sterling bodes well for both the player and Thomas Tuchel. Chelsea found itself in embarrassing situations last season because the manager had to work with a lot of players he did not trust. The Blues’ club-record signing, Romelu Lukaku, is back on loan at Inter Milan after an incredibly underwhelming season where he was benched for 12 league games in a row. Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech also didn’t see as much game time as he should have, despite having a very good season. Having another player on the roster that the manager can trust with 33 out of 38 league games would help the Blues significantly.
Tuchel kept changing his attacking cast last season, as well, largely because of trust (or a lack thereof). Sterling’s addition should mean more consistency for the front line. The major difference between Chelsea’s attackers and the attack of the teams that finished above them is the amount of minutes playing together the attacking players got, which bodes well for the future.
The Blues’ forwards also often lacked someone willing to run behind the defensive line as they preferred the ball at their feet. Sterling will create an avenue for chances with his constant, intelligent runs. Mateo Kovacic and Jorginho created 15 big chances between them from central midfield, and with a player like Sterling always on the pitch to make runs, the midfielders could find themselves making more defense-splitting passes per match.
Make no mistake, Chelsea already has players that make constant, intelligent runs off the ball. Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic, Timo Werner and Lukaku all offer[ed] good off the ball runs for Chelsea, but none of them have been consistent enough starters. Havertz was the only one that got something close to a consistent run out. The Blues now someone in Sterling to receive these particular passes. Sterling ranked in the 98th percentile for touches in the opposition penalty area and ranked in the 95th percentile for progressive passes received per 90 amongst forwards in Europe. He also ranked in the 99th percentile for non-penalty expected goals per 90 and ranked in the 92nd percentile for non-penalty goals per 90.
Sterling’s arrival means that several Chelsea forwards will become surplus to requirements as he’s reported to be coming in as the team’s highest earner. Therefore, he should be guaranteed a significant chunk of the available minutes in the Blues’ attack. Pulisic, Werner and Ziyech are exploring their options and Lukaku has already gone to Inter on loan. Chelsea has a problem with goal scoring and goal creation, but it has a bigger problem with chance creation. Man City and Liverpool create more and better goal scoring chances than the Blues, a gap that needs closing. Sterling helps with chance creation as the man that would be on the end of them, but he doesn’t help with actual creation of chances. Chelsea still needs to do something about shot creation.
What do you make of Sterling’s signing? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!