Earlier in the season, if Ireland fans had seen Raheem Sterling up against Robbie Brady at left back, they would have been justifiably worried. And that's not even taking into account the hesitance of many fans to trust Brady in that position.
Sterling looked like he was ready to set the world on fire but then his form dropped, Liverpool's form nosedived and England international started to shout from the roof tops (metaphorically) that he wanted out of Anfield.
Unsurprisingly, Liverpool fans started to turn on him and that came to a head, rather embarrassingly, at the Aviva Stadium yesterday. With every touch from the 2o year old there was audible booing from a significant section of the Irish support.
Non-Liverpool supporting Ireland fans were embarrassed but those that were booing were continuing a trend among Liverpool fans. Sterling is not a well-liked man on Merseyside at the moment. To be fair, it seems the vast majority of fans would just like to see him sold and the funds re-invested properly but the uncertainty does seem to have affected him.
He's been a shadow of the flying winger who looked unstoppable at the start of the season. Granted, everyone on the pitch generally looked lethargic yesterday but Sterling was particularly noticeable and his manager has suggested that the reception from the crowd could have played a part in that.
I think he’s going through a bad time publicly. You can’t expect people just to shrug off the criticism he has been receiving, not least from the local press in Liverpool. That becomes national pretty quickly.
Hodgson went on to say that although Sterling's attitude is not in doubt, he is going to have to develop a 'thicker skin' to deal with the kind of reception he got yesterday.
He does ever so well and tries well to shrug it off, to let his football do the talking. He needed this game to realise that, if he is going to get it out of his system, he’s going to have work harder still and get a thicker skin than he has.
[Examiner]
