Raheem Sterling has performed for Chelsea since his £ 47 million from Manchester City. Sterling was one of the best Premier League players in Manchester City but failed to replicate his form for the West London club.
Sterling scored only six goals in the Premier League last season as Chelsea finished 12th in the Premier League, one of their worst season in recent years. Sterling is still struggling this season but has managed to meet his last season’s Premier League goal tally; he scored six goals in 23 appearances.
Former Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi has insisted that Raheem Sterling looked a pale shadow of himself and does not look like the player he was during his time at Manchester City.
What did Mikel Obi Say?
He said on the Obi one Podcast: “I think he’s miles off it to be honest at this point.
“He’s not the player that we saw at Manchester City or the player that we were used to watching. A low centre of gravity, a player a bit like [Eden] Hazard. Very fast, very quick, can go past players easily, very good technically on the ball.
“I think he actually started the season really well, he was playing well.
“He was creating chances, he was taking people on, and he became the Raheem Sterling we know from before.
“But then I think he did all that because he wanted to get into the England team.”
Mikel Obi also believes that Raheem Sterling being left out of the England squad at the beginning of the season affected his confidence.
He added: “I think the first call up that came during the start of the season his name wasn’t there and that took a lot of his confidence, I would say. After that he just went, his head just went.
“Since then, I haven’t seen the Raheem Sterling that started the season. He’s been a shadow of himself.
“I think he still has a lot to offer. Is it at Chelsea or is it somewhere else? That we have to decide at the end of the season.”
Mikel also disagreed with Gary Neville, who branded the Chelsea players “billion pound bottle jobs” following their Carabao Cup defeat to Liverpool.
However, Obi believes Chelsea missed a chance to win their first silverware of the season against an inexperienced Liverpool side.
Obi explained: “We’ve spent more than a billion and when you look at it that way, is it right, is it not right? It depends on how you look at the whole situation, the whole game,’ he went on.
“Pochettino came out to defend his team, saying that his team was also young. But then when you look at the Liverpool team that finished the game, I think we were playing against their youth for over 50 minutes or something like that in the game.
“When I look back at it I think we should have capitalised on that. [Mohamed] Salah, [Darwin] Nunez and all those guys’ strengths, they didn’t start the game.
“Then when you see the big names coming out of the game like [Alexis] Mac Allister and the rest of them leaving the game and then the kids coming on, I thought that’s where we could have gone to ourselves and said: “Okay, now we have to win this game because we’re literally playing against a Liverpool youth team that doesn’t have that much experience”.
“Yes, a coach can say Chelsea are also a young team but they’re a more experienced young team. [Enzo] Fernandez has won the World Cup, [Moises] Caicedo is an established Premier League player, Cole Palmer as well, Raheem Sterling… they’re a young team but have more experience in that team than the Liverpool team that finished the game and that’s where we could have capitalised on that to go on and do more, push off, be aggressive.”
Obi added: “Of course Gary Neville has had his say but I wouldn’t call them bottle jobs.
“But I would I was disappointed we didn’t do more against the youth team of Liverpool because there were so many inexperienced players that came on for Liverpool.
“On that big stage, that’s where our young, established, experienced players should have capitalised and gone on to win the game easily.”
