The Impact of Raheem Sterling | Statistical Analysis

Watching Liverpool’s 17 year-old sensation Raheem Sterling in the Under-18′s and then the reserves always gave their fans some hope of a young winger that would excite the Kop one day. None of them expected this year to be the year that he’d  become a regular starter for the side. Raheem has started the last three Premier League matches this season. His performances have been impressive in all of them and our Twitter followers seem to agree with Sterling constantly being listed as one of the positives in each game despite the results not being what any Liverpool fan wanted.

Raheem Sterling has already proved this season that his step-over isn’t the only skill he possesses. His accurate passing, awareness and his impressive battling have been at the forefront of each of his performances. So much so that he’s putting the rest of the squad to shame with some of his statistics.

In this article we’re going to look at some of the impressive stats from Raheem Sterling’s first three starts in the Premier League.

Raheem: The First Game

Raheem’s first start was against the Premier League Champions Manchester City and he gave, the ageing, Kolo Toure a torrid time in what was an excellent first game for him. He finished the game with a respectable 80% passing accuracy and he competed in a staggering 13 duels. No other player in the team attempted as many however Raheem only won three of them. Regardless of the wins it shows that Raheem is very willing to get stuck which will only further enhance his image to the Kopites.

During the game he attempted four crosses with only one of them finding a team-mate. This was the one instance where Raheem, expertly, found Fabio Borini attacking the front post and narrowly touching his shot wide. Raheem created two chances in this game. Raheem completed 13 out of 16 passes (81%) in the final third and his passing here was the most impressive as it was the highest completion percentage in the team against the Champions.

Taking on players | not limited to wide areas

The game against Arsenal had little to shout about from a Liverpool point of view but again it was Raheem that went closest for Liverpool, hitting the left hand post from an excellent attempt at goal. He was also successful in the Final Third with 17/20 passes accurate (85% – an improvement from his first game).

There were a few moments where Raheem really got the supporters off their feet. His ability to go past players is shown to the left where he cuts inside and can beat a player with ease here too. A few times his dribbling runs can also lead to winning free-kicks in exciting areas for Liverpool. He’s a player that can take the pressure off from a side by winning free-kicks in the attacking half of the pitch – more on this in the next section against Sunderland.

Next Page: Raheem Sterling’s massive improvements Vs Sunderland and Raheem Sterling stats Vs the Premier League!