Raheem Sterling has perhaps been the Chelsea player to suffer the most since the arrival of Graham Potter. After becoming the first signing of the Todd Boehly regime, joining from Manchester City for £50million, Sterling has scored five goals and grabbed two assists this season
Considering the new environment Sterling has been placed in, a return of seven goal contributions from 19 games is a perfectly adequate goal return, however only three of those have come with Potter at the helm.
At Brighton, Potter worked wonders with Leandro Trossard, deploying the Belgian in a role that was essentially left wing-back and the 47-year-old has tried to recreate the same trick with Sterling at Chelsea but it has not quite worked to the same affect.
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The Englishman has struggled to have an impact in games, and along with Potter's decisions to frequently rotate his starting XI Sterling has been unable to build up any form. Despite some poor performances and results after a nine-game unbeaten run, Potter has mostly persisted with his preferred formation until the Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb where a back four was the chosen formation with Sterling part of a front three.
Back in a position he was far more familiar with, Sterling was able to have a significant say on the game, which included grabbing the equaliser before Denis Zakaria stroked home what turned out to be the winning goal before half time.
Following his form, and the displays of Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden, some questions have been raised over whether Sterling should be in the starting team Gareth Southgate names on Monday for England's opening game against Iran, but Micah Richards insists he will have an important role in Qatar.
“He has been a massive player for England and maybe the change of scenery will reignite what has been a frustrating season," Richards told the Daily Mail.
"Chelsea have been trying to work out how to play him. Southgate, by contrast, knows exactly what to do with him and he will have a huge role."
Sterling scored three goals in England's European Championship run to the final last summer, which included the decisive opening goal in the last-16 against Germany.
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