I mean, look at Suarez main qualities :
- excellent dribble, low center of gravity making hard for big defenders to stop him
- excellent movement with and without the ball
- good capacity to hold it
- good team player able to make other scores as much he scores himself
- good creativity
- exceptionnal work rate and fighting spirit
- excellent shooting precision
- decent head play
- goal instinct
All theses qualities out of the shooting precision and heading power, Sterling already has them or look like he can developp them (ie : about his goal scoring instinct, remember he was first remarked when he scored 5 goals in one game for u19).
They are extremely similar in the way when they lose the ball they immediatly try to get it back, their capacity to make excellent runs at the limit of offside, exploit both small and big spaces, how collective they can be for attackers, etc....
And where he is of course inferior to Suarez in most of these areas, he can certainly compensate with his far superior pace, and his better repute turning into set pieces far more fouls against him. And having showed qualities to play in any position from left back to 10, I think he can easily learn to play striker as well.
Then the question, when everyone complaint LFC is failing to adapt to Suarez loss is why aren't we playing Sterling in the front line (like yesterday after Balotelli left but not alone) ? Playing as Luis, Sterling would certainly look far less "as a square peg we are trying to fit in a round hole" than Balotelli or Lambert imo.
We have Lallana, Coutinho, Markovic to play as wingers or 10. Why not making the firm decision to play Sterling as a 11, or rather as Suarez 7 using the SaS formation every game ? He certainly won't score as much, but alongside Sturridge he may be half of a very decent new SaS (or make Balotelli or Borini look better teamed with him in front).
« Last Edit: Oct 24, 2014 06:16:30 pm by MsGerrard »
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