Manchester City v Liverpool: Raheem Sterling reaping the rewards of Pep Guardiola’s guidance

Richard Jolly previews Sunday's Premier League encounter between Manchester City and Liverpool.

Raheem Sterling faces former club Liverpool on Sunday. Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images

Premier League, Manchester City v Liverpool: Etihad Stadium, 8.30pm (UAE)

It was arguably the lowest point of Raheem Sterling’s Manchester City career. He had spent much of the opening 45 minutes of his first return to Anfield in March last year being accused of greed by supporters who used to celebrate him. He was unceremoniously removed.

Manuel Pellegrini’s abrupt, unsympathetic explanation was that he wanted to bring on Wilfried Bony as his side were 2-0 down. Not that the change made much good: Liverpool ended up winning 3-0.

A year on, Bony cannot get in the Stoke City side. Sterling should approach a reunion with his old club in rather greater spirits. He has been a catalyst for City’s largely encouraging 2017.

Rio Ferdinand, the former England defender and now media pundit, ranks him as the most improved player in the Premier League this season and he is threatening to realise his considerable potential under a manager who has enabled him to get better while maintaining he can improve further.

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If Sterling and Pellegrini felt an uneasy fit, he and Guardiola form a more natural alliance. A player with the raw materials, in terms of pace and skill, appeals to the educator in the Catalan.

Far from his reputation as an enfant terrible, Sterling has long shown that he is a keen student, responding to the micromanagement of tactical wonks and Guardiola represents an upgrade on Brendan Rodgers, who oversaw his emergence at Anfield.

Whereas the vaguer Pellegrini tended to pick him on the left, the more precise Guardiola prefers to use Sterling on the right.

He likes him to start off near the touchline, to free up space in the middle for Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva, allowing him the freedom to come into the penalty area.

He encourages him to dribble, explaining in autumn: “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.”

Yet he is being indulged to become more inventive. “It’s true how many chances he creates, how many chances he scores from,” Guardiola said last week.

“He creates penalties, is aggressive without the ball, and presses.”

Sterling is becoming more productive. His tallies so far stand at nine goals and 14 assists, whereas he only created 17 goals in three years at Liverpool.

His next task may be to become more clinical: his six league goals have come from 49 shots.

Guardiola’s right wingers at his previous clubs, Pedro and Arjen Robben, achieved career-best totals of 23 and 21 goals respectively under his management.

His input is partly tactical, partly psychological. When Sterling seemed a national scapegoat in Euro 2016 after England’s loss to Iceland, pronouncing himself “the Hated One” on Instagram, Guardiola contacted him to reassure him he played a pivotal part in his plans.

Managerial guidance played a part in his fine start to the season. After a fallow period in November and December, youth has helped revitalise him. Sterling was the anomaly as a youngster in an ageing team last season. Now there has been a generation shift.

When Gabriel Jesus was fit, he was the oldest of a new-look front three. He and Leroy Sane can gang up on Yaya Toure, calling the 33-year-old “uncle” and the German, offering similar width and pace on the left flank seems a footballing soulmate.

City’s future face their past on Sunday. Sterling’s immediate opponent will be James Milner who, while in a different deal, made the opposite journey to him in 2015.

The utility man has been reinvented as a left-back this season. Last year, operating in midfield, he scored in City’s 3-0 defeat.

It is a reason why Sterling has the wrong sort of 100 per cent record in league meetings with his old club — three games, three defeats — but, if the revival in his fortunes is anything to go by, that could change.

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