Read our new columnist’s debut on why a player he first encountered as a 17-year-old will fit Graham Potter’s Chelsea system
There are those who say Raheem Sterling cannot play at wing-back and others who wonder whether Chelsea’s new system under Graham Potter can accommodate him at all. I would ask that you consider something else: the importance we assign to players’ positions and the roles that come with them.
I suppose we are all partly to blame. Especially in the television studio when that formation appears on your screen and you have an expectation as to what full-back or central midfielder or wing-back means for a player. I have seen it more than ever in recent weeks with Raheem and the notion that, as a wing-back in Potter’s system, he is being asked to play somewhere else – or do something essentially different – to what has made him a success.
Above all, you have to take into account how much modern football has changed and what is really being asked of players in this era.
Raheem will still be getting into the attacking positions where he found himself in those years at Manchester City. The question is more about the way the team plays. In 80 per cent of the games that Chelsea find themselves in they will control possession and pin back the opposition and Raheem will be on the ball in advanced positions. The problem against Brighton last weekend was that they simply did not have enough of the ball to play high up the pitch against a confident opponent.