Sterling returns from disappointment after loan period expires: Chelsea meets challenge

Look, football is sometimes very interesting. It doesn’t mean that if you put two good things together, you will definitely be able to produce a good dish. Sterling is a very typical example of his loan to Arsenal. At the beginning, everyone thought that Arteta had led him at Manchester City and must have known how to use him. This deal should not be wrong. Everyone is counting on him to regain his peak state here, right? But what is the result? It's not that way at all.

What's the problem? You have to look at Arsenal's current playing style. What does Arteta require? It is fast, simple, and one kick. After the wing player gets the ball, he must be very determined, either cross from the bottom or cut inside or shoot. His entire system operates like a precision machine, and every part must be operated in the correct position and in the most reasonable way. As for

Sterling, his playing habits over the years, sometimes he likes to stop, shake, and find his own rhythm after getting the ball on the side. This rhythm is already slower than his peak period; it is also out of touch with the current high-speed operation rhythm of Arsenal's entire team. So you often see on the court that when the ball reaches him, the offensive speed of the entire team may drop. As soon as he hesitated, the opponent's defensive player came up and the opportunity was gone. This is awkward to play, he feels uncomfortable, and the team's offense is not smooth.

A player, especially a player like Sterling, who relies on speed and explosiveness, will suffer a great blow to his confidence when he can't rush up several times on the court or can't pass. The less confident you are, the less you dare to do movements. The less you dare to do movements, the more you become invisible on the field, which has become a vicious cycle. By the late stage of the season, you see that he has less and less time to play, and even the young player Envanelli's appearance pick is sometimes ahead of him, which is very telling. This is no longer a question of tactical adaptation, but also a question of the players' overall mentality and competitive state.

So when you look at his last farewell, I posted a sentence on social media, thank you for accepting my family. This is very polite, but also very distant. He didn't mention the club, the coach, or his feelings. What does this mean? This means he himself knew that the year was not satisfactory and there was nothing worth talking about. This is a kind of helplessness, and it is also a kind of decency that a professional player reserves for himself when experiencing a trough.

For Sterling, this is another career crossroads. When I went to Chelsea from Manchester City, I wanted to prove that I could be the core, but the result was not ideal. Now he is loaned to Arsenal and wants to get back to form under his familiar coach, but he failed again. He is of course still capable of his ability, but how to find a team and playing style that truly suits his rhythm and how to adjust his mentality is the biggest issue he has to face. The career of a football player, sometimes, is full of ups and downs and uncertainty.