Pundit Karen Carney has told ‘The Kelly and Wrighty Show’ that Chelsea are not setting up to get the best out of Raheem Sterling.
The England international was arguably the club’s marquee signing of the summer, despite not being the most expensive in what proved to be a busy summer.
Blues fans are certainly still waiting to see the best of the 27-year-old.
Despite being a part of the illustrious Premier League ‘100 club’, he has only found the net four times in all competitions for his new club.
After what was a decent start under Thomas Tuchel, he has been a victim of the new manager, Graham Potter, still searching for his best team and system.
Chelsea setting Sterling up to fail
This has seen the devastating winger deployed in a wing-back role on multiple occasions.
Carney has claimed that this will be frustrating Sterling, who has rarely shown traits of being a wing-back in his career so far.
She said: “I feel for Sterling because you want to play to your superpowers. He’s attacking, a winger, creative. It’s anxiety of defending and doing things unnaturally. You are just annoyed. I would be annoyed being out of position.
“You move from City, say you want to play, come to Chelsea, change manager and then you’re pulled from pillar to post. How is he expected to thrive?”
Sterling will be hopeful of a rest alongside the rest of the crucial first team players for tomorrow’s Champions League match against Dinamo Zagreb. The Blues are already through as group winners.
Instead, the majority of eyes will be on next weekend’s London derby with table-topping Arsenal. With there being just two games left until the season breaks for the World Cup, it will be important to go into the second half of the season off as strong a run as possible.