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The perfect start to the season for Manchester City has obviously had a huge impact from Pep Guardiola, who has implemented a differently style of play and raised the level of plenty of players, including Raheem Sterling.
The young Englishman has been one of the pleasant surprises of the early stages of this campaign, and Sterling is finally answering his (many) critics with bold, attacking performances in every game. City invested £44 million in the player a year ago, and that huge price tag is one of the reasons why the critics have been so loud before Raheem's great performances.
As he starts to turn things around in his favor, Sterling is scoring and setting up goals left and right, and he is quick to credit his manager for his great early form, revealing a simple, yet powerful advice from Pep Guardiola:
"He said just enjoy scoring goals, enjoy putting it in the back of the net and see it going in the net. Going in there I made my mind up straight away what I was going to do and luckily it paid off.
"He just gives everyone confidence - not just me. He gives everyone a belief and a motivation. His speech before [is] fantastic so you go out onto the pitch and you’re really fired up for the game.
“I’ve had a few chances over the last couple of years and I just need to finish them off and that’s what’s really going to make me the player I want to be - scoring more goals.
“And I just need to be cool in front of goal and keep going, trying to score as many goals as I can to help the team.”
Sterling's great football is also thanks to the overall performance of the team, who is playing together and involving everybody. City's evolution under Pep Ball is truly fascinating, and Sterling thinks the team needs to be humble and not get carried away be the perfect results, and keep working hard on improving throughout the season.
“It’s a team that’s ever-developing, an ever-building relationship. The team spirit’s great in the dressing room and on the pitch. We just keep fighting for each other and we just need to keep that going.
“We’ve just got to keep humble, we've got to just keep working hard. It’s been a great start but we’ve got remind ourselves that it’s still only September, the season has a long way to go.”
Source: M.E.N.