Sterling: does the manager only view him as a utility player?

Right sided CH playing in the same fashion as Bassey did at his best for us is where O would play him.
 
He's moved about cause he can actually play a bit.

We need his energy in midfield. But at the same time we can't have barisic at left back if ridvan is Injured. But we have nobody on the right hand side of midfield and he does well there. But it would be better if he was in the middle cause our midfield is awful.

If he played under Walter smith he'd be an excellent utility player. At the moment he's one of our best.
 
Lest we forgot, it was actually Phil who brought Sterling out of cold storage and gave him the chance to play, Beale barely played him, even when he was available. Sterling's curse at present, is his versatility and adaptability. It's neither his, nor the managers fault really. It's the state of the squad and the injuries we've had to endure this season.

Clement would most likely, would prefer to play Sterling in positions that suit him best. But our lack of anything resembling depth, has led to him being shifted about on a near weekly basis.

Our two best options on the wing at present, are a guy we signed to be a full back in the summer and a guy we signed to share the burden at centre forward in January. Neither player has been able to play their natural/best positions for months due to injuries and imbalance in the squad. If that doesn't sum up the present state of our squad, then I don't really have anymore words left on the matter.

The fact we have two fit wingers and neither of them are, or have been good enough for months, means that Sterling has to play on the wing. Cantwell was tasked with playing there at the beginning of Clement’s tenure and it caused friction. So, we can't just drop Sterling to midfield at the moment.
 
Once again we surrendered the midfield
Sterling in my opinion would have made a big difference there
I actually feel sorry for him as he is moved about from right wing, left back and centre back because he is versatile to make up for players who can't play their own position
 
ronadamus_prime said:
Lest we forgot, it was actually Phil who brought Sterling out of cold storage and gave him the chance to play, Beale barely played him, even when he was available. Sterling's curse at present, is his versatility and adaptability. It's neither his, nor the managers fault really. It's the state of the squad and the injuries we've had to endure this season.

Clement would most likely, would prefer to play Sterling in positions that suit him best. But our lack of anything resembling depth, has led to him being shifted about on a near weekly basis.

Our two best options on the wing at present, are a guy we signed to be a full back in the summer and a guy we signed to share the burden at centre forward in January. Neither player has been able to play their natural/best positions for months due to injuries and imbalance in the squad. If that doesn't sum up the present state of our squad, then I don't really have anymore words left on the matter.

The fact we have two fit wingers and neither of them are, or have been good enough for months, means that Sterling has to play on the wing. Cantwell was tasked with playing there at the beginning of Clement’s tenure and it caused friction. So, we can't just drop Sterling to midfield at the moment.
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It’s almost as if a shape change was required, no?

4-4-2 diamond was required weeks ago given the injuries to wide players and us being over run in midfield.

Putting square pegs in round holes has contributed to this collapse.
 
Obviously we've been hampered with injuries and Clement hasn't had much to play with but Sterling absolutely should have been in midfield on Saturday. His athleticism, power and defensive abilities wouldn't have necessarily changed the outcome but I think it would have given us a far more balanced midfield and would have stopped them just waltzing through us at will. To enable this Ridvan should have been LB and McCausland on the right side of midfield. I'm not looking to criticise Clement as he has done really well considering what he came in to but I think most of us thought deploying this set up was glaringly obvious. Not sure what outcome he expected with the team he fielded but it was entirely predictable imo. It was so obvious they would over run us in midfield.

We will waste Sterling's talent if we just use him if and when required. He should be given a starting position and the team built around him. He's barely put a foot wrong since Clement arrived.
 
CLMGC said:
Obviously we've been hampered with injuries and Clement hasn't had much to play with but Sterling absolutely should have been in midfield on Saturday. His athleticism, power and defensive abilities wouldn't have necessarily changed the outcome but I think it would have given us a far more balanced midfield and would have stopped them just waltzing through us at will. To enable this Ridvan should have been LB and McCausland on the right side of midfield. I'm not looking to criticise Clement as he has done really well considering what he came in to but I think most of us thought deploying this set up was glaringly obvious. Not sure what outcome he expected with the team he fielded but it was entirely predictable imo. It was so obvious they would over run us in midfield.

We will waste Sterling's talent if we just use him if and when required. He should be given a starting position and the team built around him. He's barely put a foot wrong since Clement arrived.
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Ridvan obviously wasn't fit enough to start or he would have.
 
Long term probably not but we had holes all over the squad due to injuries so it kind of forced his hand. I wouldn't have played him right midfield on Saturday but once we clear the shite out then I think it will be a lot more settled.
 
He’s played everywhere because Clement has had little other option.

You would hope come game 1 of the new season, Clement has him bolted into whatever position he best sees him in for the season.
 
I don't think Sterling is good enough on the ball to be a midfielder long term.

Maybe he would have been useful there on Saturday, who knows. He created the goal through what was a clear tactic to target their back post, maybe we wouldn't even have scored if he was in midfield rather than where he was.
 
One of the few players we currently have that is like to see in a starting line up next season, I’d have him in the defensive midfield where I thought he looked great earlier in the season. We’ve been half the team since he started playing out on the wing.

I think big Phil sees this but we are so short in attacking options right now he’s stuck out on the wing.
 
Aaritalo said:
He's moved about cause he can actually play a bit.

We need his energy in midfield. But at the same time we can't have barisic at left back if ridvan is Injured. But we have nobody on the right hand side of midfield and he does well there. But it would be better if he was in the middle cause our midfield is awful.

If he played under Walter smith he'd be an excellent utility player. At the moment he's one of our best.
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Good / decent technique along with desire, a bit of pace and work rate allow him to play most positions. his position is RB, play him there and we have an ever present deputy who is not just approaching, but is past his best who can be the replacement should Sterling ever be injured or required to plug a hole elsewhere.

We just need to solve the midfield option with a new player rather than putting round pegs in square holes all over the park.
 
wee_bear said:
It’s almost as if a shape change was required, no?

4-4-2 diamond was required weeks ago given the injuries to wide players and us being over run in midfield.

Putting square pegs in round holes has contributed to this collapse.
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100% agree Wee Bear.

I still think Sterling was our best player, even with the RW / RCD positions he played. He won every physical & pace based 50/50he had in that second half, including recovering to beat Maeda in a sprint.
 
Seemed extremely impressive as a CB; I wonder why we only discovered now how good he is there.
 
John Brown played at left back, left midfield, centre of midfield and striker for Rangers for about 3yrs before Walter Smith gave him an extended run in the center of defence.

The versatility of Sterling is a real bonus for him and Rangers, although at 24 he probably needs to find a position to establish himself at.
Being able to play in defence and midfield can potentially make him a key man in any football team though.
 
TheCanonburyCaniggia said:
I worry how the manager keeps playing him in every position but his best. Week in week out he is moved around. It is concerning.
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What is his best position? I know he's supposed to be a right back, but the few times he's played there he's looked worse in that position than when he's played in the centre of midfield
 
I think the issue is not with Sterling the issue is the numerous holes in the squad that need filled with quality and due to this they are being filled by Sterling.

His versatility is a blessing.

Without that you would have see Wright on the park or young King who are both miles off what we need.

Both these players should be looking at a player being played out of position in their space and knowing the writing is on the wall and engaging with their agent.

I would like to see Sterling is a settled place but to do so we need a team built round about him
 
TheCanonburyCaniggia said:
I worry how the manager keeps playing him in every position but his best. Week in week out he is moved around. It is concerning.
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Its clear he would bring so much missing physicality to our midfield so I have been frustrated watching him on the wing. He is good enough to do a job in most positions but we need to start using him correctly. For me he is, behind butland, our most valuable asset and we need to treat him as such.
 
Goggs21 said:
Once again we surrendered the midfield
Sterling in my opinion would have made a big difference there
I actually feel sorry for him as he is moved about from right wing, left back and centre back because he is versatile to make up for players who can't play their own position
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I wouldn’t feel sorry as Sterling appears to be someone who appreciates just to be able to play.

His attitude and effort is spot on.

I would though love for us to be able to buy players who can also play, and allow Sterling to settle into one position.
 
RangersUK said:
I wouldn’t feel sorry as Sterling appears to be someone who appreciates just to be able to play.

His attitude and effort is spot on.

I would though love for us to be able to buy players who can also play, and allow Sterling to settle into one position.
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Fantastic attitude.

For me, both visits to Parkhead he's been out MOTM. Likewise, the cup final.

Great mental strength & composure.
 
Grigo Yossarian said:
Fantastic attitude.

For me, both visits to Parkhead he's been out MOTM. Likewise, the cup final.

Great mental strength & composure.
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Yeah I’m very impressed with him.

I have always told my two sons, that in life people can take away everything you have and own, apart from your attitude and effort, those two things nobody can take away. Have right attitude and put all the effort in, all things will work out well.

Sterling is the perfect example.
 
RangersUK said:
Yeah I’m very impressed with him.

I have always told my two sons, that in life people can take away everything you have and own, apart from your attitude and effort, those two things nobody can take away. Have right attitude and put all the effort in, all things will work out well.

Sterling is the perfect example.
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Great message to children RUK.
 
He's an Ian Murray type for me, not a specialist in one position but very useful in a few. It could be detrimental to him in a sense, but extremely useful for a manager to have a guy who can cover 4 or 5 positions admirably.
He won't be RB next season, I'm fairly confident about that.
When he first came I thought we would maybe see a shift to a back 3 with him RCB but that never happened.
Not sure of him as a CB but perhaps we will see a bit of that between now and the summer depending on Souttar and Balogun.
 
CLMGC said:
Absolutely, he is a far better option than Barasic. Even half fit. The horse has well and truly bolted with Barasic, I'm really surprised Clement started him.
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Surely that was down to Ridvan's inability to play 45/60 at this stage ?

It's the only acceptable reason ?
 
CLMGC said:
Absolutely, he is a far better option than Barasic. Even half fit. The horse has well and truly bolted with Barasic, I'm really surprised Clement started him.
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Clement said on Friday he takes advice from the medical staff and performance staff as to how long a player can play for. He had only played 15 minutes in 6 weeks so can see why he wouldn't be able to play a high intensity game for too long - especially considering we have seen how fragile he appears to be.
 
Grigo Yossarian said:
Surely that was down to Ridvan's inability to play 45/60 at this stage ?

It's the only acceptable reason ?
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Aye very possibly Grigo, in such an important game surely it would be better to get him on from the start then replace if he's struggling as the game goes on? Maybe not. I'm not a football manager but it makes some sort of sense to me.
 
ICA_86 said:
Got enough for 15 minutes against Killie, followed by a full week of training.

There were no reports of any further injury in training - he should have started.
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Exactly, he's played 15 minutes in 6 weeks, at the end of a game that was finished. There's no way he was ready to be chucked into a game of that intensity after that time out.
 
CLMGC said:
Aye very possibly Grigo, in such an important game surely it would be better to get him on from the start then replace if he's struggling as the game goes on? Maybe not. I'm not a football manager but it makes some sort of sense to me.
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I'm with you CLMGC.

It's a tough call, because it's so clear the improvement Ridvan is compared to Barisic nowadays, but if we have Ridvan to start in the final, that's what matters now.
 
Grigo Yossarian said:
I'm with you CLMGC.

It's a tough call, because it's so clear the improvement Ridvan is compared to Barisic nowadays, but if we have Ridvan to start in the final, that's what matters now.
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It's a rock and a hard place for Clement, I get it. Easy to look back now and criticise, if it had worked out we would be praising him for starting Borna. Deep down we just knew the type of performance we would get from him though. Timid and unreliable. The same as pretty much every old firm game he has ever played, give or take.
 
This won’t go down well and I’d play him centre mid just now but I don’t think he’s good enough on the ball to play there long term.

He’s a right back.
 
CLMGC said:
It's a rock and a hard place for Clement, I get it. Easy to look back now and criticise, if it had worked out we would be praising him for starting Borna. Deep down we just knew the type of performance we would get from him though. Timid and unreliable. The same as pretty much every old firm game he has ever played, give or take.
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In recent years yes, but he got MOTM in December, 2019. AKA The Clancy Game.
 
People seem over-eager to build a team around him in midfield.

He's 25 this year and looks to have played a handful of times in central midfield his whole career?

www.transfermarkt.co.uk

Dujon Sterling - Detailed stats

These are the detailed performance data of Glasgow Rangers player Dujon Sterling. The website contains a statistic about the performance data of the player.
www.transfermarkt.co.uk www.transfermarkt.co.uk
 
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