“Whatever you do, there’s always a plus and a minus” Raheem Sterling Makes a shock decision on how Chelsea can use him against the Crystal Palace match
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Raheem Sterling started at left wing-back in Chelsea’s most recent game against Red Bull Salzburg, and it might happen again against Crystal Palace.
When Chelsea finalized the acquisition of Raheem Sterling in July, the club’s supporters were ecstatic.
The Blues had just signed a serial champion who had been instrumental in Manchester City’s recent dominance of English football. In reality, considering the circumstances, his debut at Chelsea couldn’t have gone much better.
Sterling has four goals and one assist in eight games for Chelsea in all competitions this season. In what has been a difficult start to the season, the 27-year-old is the club’s leading scorer.
Thomas Tuchel was the man responsible for bringing Sterling to Stamford Bridge, but the German is no longer in charge. Graham Potter took over from Tuchel, and in his first match in charge, he made an unexpected choice about Sterling.
The team was made public one hour before kickoff in the encounter against Red Bull Salzburg almost a week ago. If you were on Twitter at the moment, your feed could have been congested with people enquiring about the Chelsea XI. Nobody could figure out what was going on.
Given Potter’s time at Brighton and the individuals in the lineup, everyone expected it would be a three-back system, but no one knew who the left wing-back would be. Sterling and maybe Mason Mount were the only alternatives.
Sterling started on the left flank in what appeared to be a wing-back position. Apart from that, it wasn’t. In any case, not really. It was essentially a left winger role, which he filled several times during his Manchester City tenure. As Potter describes below, Sterling was not asked to defend as much as a wing-back would be expected to.
“It was a back-three as far as I was concerned, with Reece [James] and Raheem providing width,” Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho remarked. “With their 4-3-1-2 formation, Salzburg is really powerful in the center, so it’s not simple to play through the middle of the pitch.” We needed some dangerous width, and Reece and Raheem provided it.
“They were mostly full-backs in lateral positions and midfielders.” Raheem and Reece both got into some nice situations, in my opinion.”
“Well, there is that chance, but you have to organize around it as you don’t want Raheem really defending in his box too much, and I don’t believe he did,” Potter said when asked if playing Sterling as a wing-back presents a danger for Chelsea. Marc Cucurella handled the issue admirably, in my opinion. I can’t recall how many chances they had down that side.
“There’s always a positive and a drawback to anything, but we were at home and wanted to be on the front foot and generate some offensive ideas in those areas.” Raheem is an excellent attacker who scored a stunning goal.
“I think he played pretty well.” Reece balances things up a little bit, and we can still defend in a four if necessary, or so we thought.”
Despite being a wing-back, Sterling’s attacking license was unrestricted. We’ve seen him be a dangerous attacking threat when playing wide on the left side several times. Cucurella was practically Sterling’s backup on the left, sometimes drifting to wider areas.
The England international scored Chelsea’s sole goal in a contest in which he had acres of room in the area. That’s not to suggest Ben Chilwell or Cucurella don’t go into the box as wing-backs – witness West Ham United with Chilwell, for example – because they do. It’s how frequently Sterling found himself in perilous situations.
It demonstrated Potter’s tactical versatility and, despite the fact that Chelsea ended up drawing the game 1-1, his tactical intelligence. It’s a position Sterling might see more of, especially against teams where Chelsea is sure to have more of the possession.
