England v Sweden

[Nobby]

'Sterling created a lot'?

Did he? Any examples because I missed any chances he developed. A few times he ignored teammates and went alone only to squander the chance/lose possession in typical fashion, but how that transmits to having a good game lord knows.

The chance by Kane that went past the post in the first half springs to mind.

Hardly a chance, it was from about 25 yards, and Sterling over dribbled it to the point that Kane had to take it off him when a simple pass would have sufficed. It was Sterling all over, dribbling without purpose annd losing control of it, luckily it was Kane there to pick up the ball and not an opposition defender as has become standard. For a bloke who has apparently had a good game, that is not a top quality piece of creative play and sums up my point. The other pacy forwards still in this World Cup have far more attacking threat than running around like a hamster in an exercise ball. Hazard was dominant the other night because he dribbled towards defenders and made them commit before slipping it to a teammate in more space. Sterling tends to skip into traffic and tackles before getting dispossessed, his end product is completely lacking and his contribution ineffectual.

Hypothetically speaking, Rashford has pace to burn as well and would have given the slow Sweden defenders issues with his pace and aggression. He also has height, physicality and an ability to pass the ball rather than run like a headless chicken in possession. Against better teams we will need more than Kane winning clever free kicks and relying on set pieces. In my opinion all of England's attacking threat is play that happens around and in spite of Sterling rather than through him and he's been somewhat of a passenger throughout this World Cup.

After that rant, I think I'll leave the comments to those that know something about football...hypothetically speaking!

Not one of the pundits saw Sterling's game as you apparently did.

"Lacking confidence in front of goal but his effort and all round game was decent. How he needs a goal though."

He also happened to have the same rating as Young, Alli and Kane.

Exactly. Knibbsworth yet again shows his lack of knowledge of the game. Sterling terrified the Swedish defence with his pace and continually got us up the pitch. He's not the finished article but he's the best we have. But Knibs worth can never see another point of view even when the rest of the world disagrees with him.

League One and Two forwards would have finished the two chances Sterling had, he isn't blessed with composure.

Firstly one chance is offside so irrelevant. Secondly, find me a League One or Two striker that would have even controlled that ball out of the sky in the first place.