Raheem Sterling expects Reds to dominate individual awards this season
According to Spanish publication AS (h/t Daily Mail), Manchester City star Raheem Sterling believes that Manchester City stars are not given the same respect afforded to Liverpool. City have won the English Premier League three times in the last six seasons. However, not one of their players won the PFA Player of the year award.
The 25-year-old believes that the Citizens have been unfairly overlooked in spite of their domestic success. In spite of winning the domestic quadruple last season, Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk took home the Player of the Season trophy after an incredible individual season for the Reds.
Sterling goes on to admit that Van Dijk had a fantastic season before going on to question the basis for Yaya Toure to be overlooked in the 2013-14 season in spite of scoring 20 goals from midfield.
“This year Liverpool win the league and a Liverpool player will win the Player of the Year for sure,” he said. “We won the league four times and we were not treated with the same respect.”
He also took the example Sergio Aguero, who in spite of a number of strong performances, has never won the individual award. The English star believes that it is impossible for a team to win the title as many times as City have without the best player in their midst.
The City star also predicted this season’s awards to be dominated by Liverpool, with the Reds favorites to win the league.
A flawed logic?
It is difficult to agree with Sterling, looking at the players who won the awards in those seasons. The Yaya Toure performance in question came in the same season that Luis Suarez scored 32 goals and 12 assists in 33 games. It is surprising that Sterling would question this considering he watched the Uruguyan weave his magic close up at Liverpool.
Mohamed Salah scored 32 goals and 10 assists in the 2017/18 season whereas Robin van Persie scored 30 goals and 10 assists for Arsenal in the 2011/12 season. Both the players performed considerably better than Sergio Aguero in these seasons in spite of the Argentine’s brilliance.
Strangely enough, Sterling also claimed that N’Golo Kante won the award over Kevin De Bruyne the year City won their first league title under Pep Guardiola. Kante won the award in the 2016/17 season while Guardiola’s first Premier League title came in the 2017/18 season.
It is noteworthy to point out that Salah outperformed De Bruyne that season in spite of the Belgian star posting excellent numbers. The PFA Player of the Year is given to the best player at an individual level and not the best player of the best team.
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Raheem Sterling won the PFA Young Player of the Year last season and was also in contention for the PFA Player of the year award. Ultimately, he lost the player of the year award to Van Dijk.
