Chelsea attacker Raheem Sterling is “miles off it” right now with his level of performances.
That is according to former Blues star John Obi Mikel.
Raheem Sterling, 29, is one of the few senior names in Chelsea’s squad right now and there’s big expectation on his shoulders.
The English winger is on course for a decent campaign, scoring eight goals and making eight assists across all competitions so far.
However, we’d argue there’s still not the consistency in his game and he can go missing in the big moments.
Speaking on his The Obi One Podcast this week, Mikel did single out Chelsea’s Sterling for some individual criticism.
He suggests that the £50m attacker (Daily Mail) has certainly taken his foot off the gas after a strong start to the campaign.
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“He’s miles off it to be honest… I think he actually started the season really well…. He was playing well. He was creating chances. He was taking people on. He became the Raheem Sterling we know from before.
“He did all that because he wanted to get into the England team. I think the first call up that came during the start of the season his name wasn’t there. 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 somewhere else? We have to decide at the end of the season.”
Raheem Sterling form
Our guess is that the Gareth Southgate snub with England recently has been a bad distraction for Sterling.
The rapid forward is showing he’s still capable of fantastic individual moments, but he’s never taken up the mantle as the talisman in this young Chelsea group.
TalkSPORT reported earlier this week that Sterling plans to turn down interest from Saudi Arabia to stay and help Chelsea try to fight for silverware. If that’s true, perhaps the best is yet to come from him at the club.
