FPL: Can you afford to keep ignoring Sterling?

The pound may be down, but Sterling is on the rise.

When it comes to Raheem Sterling, football fans are divided – he can be either brilliant or he can well and truly frustrate. He burst onto the scene for Liverpool in 2012 and he looked like he could be the real deal, especially during the 2013/14 season of SaS – Sturridge and Suarez.

Despite his quality during that season, which was good enough to see Man City pay £49m for the midfielder, Sterling’s move has not quite been the success story such a price tag assumes. He seemed like a man playing with a lot of pressure on his shoulders for both club and country, and it was evident in his performances.

However, Raheem seems to be finally be living up to his potential with his performances under Pep Guardiola this season – lets take a look at Raheem Sterling’s stats so far in 2017/18:

Ranked 7th in the FPL with 50 points

Scored 8 goals in all comps 

2 assists in all comps 

Involved in 10 goals in 11 games in all comps

Scored in all 5 of City’s home games this season (in all comps) 

PL record: 7 appearances 5 starts 6 goals 2 assists 

Has a goal to game ratio of 1 goal every 80 minutes

Owned by just 12.3% (as of Thursday evening) 

Costs just £8.1m

Whatever your feelings are about Sterling, he seems to be FPL gold this year and is owned by just 12.3%. Let’s not forget he has been valued at £8.1m, therefore, he could be the real differential bargain you are looking for. 

This season v last:

 Last season, Sterling managed just 10 goals in 53 matches in all competitions for Man City and England, and this is on the back of a poor World Cup campaign too. The pressure was well and truly on the young midfielder.

I do not know what Pep has said or done differently during pre-season this year, but with just under a quarter of the season gone so far, Sterling has already netted eight times.

So, why is Raheem Sterling so cheap and owned by so few? 

It cannot be denied that Man City have a superb squad this season, and will be serious title contenders. Within this squad, Pep has plenty of attacking options, meaning Sterling is a serious rotation risk. How many times have we seen the team news, and seen our Man City player is benched since Pep took over? The real question you need to ask yourself is: is the risk worth it?

Sterling is a risky player with the danger of rotation, and, albeit unfortunate, a red card already this season. But, look around to the other midfielders that are on offer with Alli performing poorly, Hazard still not quite at his peak coming back from injury, Mane now out for 6 weeks and Ozil making the pundits talk for the wrong reasons; Sterling is looking a good option now. Midfield is such a vital position in FPL, earning points for goals, assists and clean sheets; and with the forwards being so expensive-Sterling could be that cheaper midfield option to balance the books.

Man City are an exciting team to watch, and De Bruyne is getting all the headlines for some of his playmaking, but Sterling is bringing in the points too – lets hope his cheap price for his returns goes unnoticed by the FPL powers that be for a little while longer.

Written by @Barrick88