18 Jan 2012

Ian RUSH: Exciting Liverpool wing starlet is "similar to Michael Owen..."

Liverpool have a whole host of promising young attacking players being developed at Anfield right now, but Kop legend Ian Rush believes one particular youngster stands out from all the rest.

Rushie was recently asked who he felt would be the 'next Ian Rush' at Liverpool. The ever-modest Welshman argued that 'you have to be looking at someone with a better pace' than he had.

Then, despite warning that he didn't think it was 'right to actually say names because you are putting pressure on that person' (!) Rush gave his view on who he believes is the best up and coming young striker at Liverpool:

“There are a few young kids coming up. There is one young lad, Raheem Sterling. He is only 17. He is similar to Michael Owen at that age..."

As I argued in an article earlier today, I would love to see a creative flair player come through the youth set-up for a change, and Sterling looks like he has great potential. He's small, but so was Owen, and he made it.



Sterling was born in Kingston, Jamaica, just like Liverpool legend John Barnes; perhaps it's a good omen?

Jaimie Kanwar


32 comments:

  1. He's looked good for England youth teams in tournaments as well, so is definitely top class for his age group. Considering that his position is one that we seem to be weak in, why not give him a go. Some youngsters actually provide a bit of an edge to a team as they play without fear. Not all youngsters, but you don't know till you try. It would be no shame to have him on the bench and give him a run out and decide he needs more time. He wouldn't be the first, or the last, that this happened to. What have we got to lose?

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  2. There are so many invidual in the reserve team that are playing very well.... why not try them out surely we can get best results from them. 

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  3. totally agree with Gab. we lack attacking threat or any sort of flair especially with Suarez out. what is the worst that can happen if we bring on a youngster for the last 20 minutes of a game? sterling can't perform any worse than downing has so why not give him a try! it doesn't mean we have to have him in the starting XI or on the bench every week,just one or two games to see how he does. we've got nothing to lose.

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  4. sterling is wat its all about, reallt exciting player. if your good enough your old enough! c"mon kenny give him a few minutes at least.

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  5. Perhaps winning the league cup, and being too far of a CL place to realistically qualify, may be a chance to try out/bed in a few of these obviously promising youth team players in the final 1/4 of the season.

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  6. my god jamie......rush said this over 6 months ago....keep up.

    seperatly i completely agree with you over the prospect of raheem however i would point out that alot of the time youngsters are hyped up about their prospects and then something happens to them, maybe they fold under the pressure of what is expected of them because they are built up so much. it is all a matter of biding your time with them and making sure that they are 100% ready for the pressure of the limelight being on them and the responsibilitys they have to undertake playing in the premier league and especially for a club like ours where the expectations are so high. take dani pacheco as a prime example, who was raved about for years and years but then failed to shine in any of the first team games that he played.

    that being said i also, like you, thought that prehaps we would see raheem and one or two others from the youth squad, the likes of conor coady, suso and andre wisdom playing in the carling cup or fa cup this year, however i do see kennys logic in not playing because i think he was aware that we were still short for seriously challenging for the title given it being his first full year in the job and the influx of new players that need time to bed in to the club, and regardless of what anyone says that is what is still happening (imo players need a full season together to gel properly), so kenny saw the carling and fa cups as our best chances of silverware this season and decided not to take a chance on the youngsters this season, and lets be honest if at the end of the season we are either carling cup or fa cup winners or prehaps even both then will kenny not have made the right choice. i would suggest that unless we have some major injurys this season or heading towards the end of the season and we have either cemented ourselves in or out of champions league football next season that we will not see any of the youngsters playing first team football this season. Next season i believe will be far more experimental with regards to youngsters.

    on a completly seperate note i would like to address the people who are constantly having a go at our newest signings. i would ask these people have we not improved as a team? are we not in a better position now than last season? are we still not in with a possibility of champions league football and silverware this season? you are expecting to much too quickly. Downing is improving week by week as is andy carroll, to right them off after less than one full season at the club is shortsighted. Henderson has looked absolutly superb and if he was to just add a few more goals to his repitoire he would be the perfect replacement for stevie g but lets remember he is still only 20 and has plenty of time to improve. lastly i just cannot understand the critisism that charlie adam receives on this blog, not from you jamie as i know that like me you are a big fan of his, but from other people claiming how bad he has supposedly been, i have seen every game this season and could count the amount of bad games he has had on one hand. i think as liverpool fans we sometimes look at the imediate impact that certain players have had on our club (gerrard, suarez, torres, jose enrique to name a few) and expect every player to live up to those high standards and forget about people like lucas, carra, kuyt who built their names by hard work and winning fans around i remember people saying that all of these players would never be good enough to play for our club and look at their status now. please people lay off.

    keep up the good work jamie, while i dont always agree with what you say i admire your front to do so and provoke a reaction weather it be good or bad.

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  7. Good point, but if Downing is still serving up dross and Kuyt seems to have lost it altogether, are we risking much by playing him for half an hour from time to time? It may even give them the kick up the backside that they need.

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  8. Yes, totally agree with both yourself and Rashid. It is hardly a risk and with the slightly disappointing first half of this season, nothing lifts a club more than a promising youngster coming through and providing a bit of excitement. He looks the kind of skillful, flair player that the team could do with. A bit of unpredictability, as well as pace, is what we need.

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  9. slightly disappointing first half of the season? semi finals of the carling cup with an away goal advatage to take to anfield, 5 points off a champions league spot with arsenal, chelsea and spurs all to come to anfield yet as well as an away game at newcastle and utd to go, still in the fa cup with a franckly poor utd team to play in the next round, second best defensive record in the league and half a season to play and playing some lovely flowing passing football which controls games al be it prehaps a faliure to captalise at times. yeah your right absolutly terrible first half of the season we should give up now and concead the lot because we are just not good enough to be in this league.....get a grip for christs sake....did you really think that given the position we were in 18 months ago we would be challenging for the title this year....by the way if the answer is yes then you are more of a fool than your comments suggest (and thats pretty foolish already)

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  10. First this is just a complilation of all his "good moments" with the ball. I (and I`m sure most of you) haven`t watched enough matches of him playing to be able to give an unbiased objective opinion of the player. This can be done with any player even konchesky and poulsen and they also can be made to look world class. Also lets not forget that this is reserve and that most of the time those kids don`t have what it takes to make the big step up. Futhermore if our youngsters were that good they would not have got beaten like amateurs in the next gem competition. But anyway maybe trying them for a couple of minutes per match like how we do with caroll wont make us any harm and with a little luck we may get our next micheal owen.

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  11. Dont be so sure, Ian Rush.

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  12. His final ball needs a lot of work. Other than that should be worth a shot.

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  13. Sorry to be pessimist guys but I have very big doubt that any of our young ones will be given a chance or push for a first team place :(

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  14. The one guy I would like to see get 20 minutes in the odd home game is Adam Morgan. He looks like a natural goalscorer to me.

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  15. He is great at taking on players on the wing and full of tricks but I don't see where the Owen comparison is. Yes, he can drift in from wide positions. But again, not really a striker of Owen's mould. Definitely a exciting prospect though but for me. He needs to show more of a end product or he will simply become another SWP, i.e. a speed merchant with no brains.

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  16. At this rate, another SWP would be better than what we are getting on the flanks at the moment. We've scored 24 league goals this season.

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  17. Touche. 

    In relation to Sterling, he needs to look at Iker Muniain. Now he is what I call a player that was ready to make a impact on the first team early and still doing so. Terrific young player. Sterling doesn't have that level of maturity about his play yet

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  18. He should fit right into the 1st team, he can't deliver a decent pass into the box either! Sure he looks exciting, but he is nowhere good enough.

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  19. 17 yrs old and is performing like a true proffessional. I was extremely pleased to hear he signed his proffessional contract with us a couple of months ago. It gives me hope to see not only Sterling giving it his all but to all the Youth/ Reserve players we have who'll give Liverpool some solid rienforcements over the years to come. YNWA!!!!!

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  20. Weve spent a fortune on these superkids and because we pick duds ita all a waste

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  21. Only a lad called Adorian has a real chance of the foreign buys  and Morgan will be o k at Blackpool one day 

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  22. Hi name is Adorjan (Krisztian)

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  23. Well said...Were in it for the long run..Were not Chelski or Mank City, We've got the history...And we've got the future...YNWA

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  24. Gab, well said, Give the young lad a run and see how he performs YNWA

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  25. I don't think slightly disappointing is too harsh really, 11 draws at home anyone?? If we had won even half of those we'd be in 4th place right now. I agree totally that league position aside we can be happy with our progress, but happy with our progress won't get us into the champions league or challenging for a 19th title. We are doing good but the players we have and have bought need to pull their socks up a bit.

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  26. We've only got the future if we fight for it, or we could always send Marty McFly back for it...

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  27. needs another year to work on techneque. but 15/20 mins here and there wont harm him

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  28. Sorry dont agree with you on downing, hence why game by game he's spending less time on the pitch. No age excuse or lack of premiership experience excuse, right age and at best average. Never rated him since his borough days and if he was that good why did no one come in for him. Sorry pal it seems like in ur eyes no-one can do wrong. i wish you were by boss!!! Downing - poor poor poor signing and will not be able to hide for too long with his poor attitude and lack of desire to make things happen!! Enrique is more of a winger than he is and plays i state" Out of his comfort zone" younger, cheaper with lesser premiership experience. No brainer im afraid!!

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  29. It is slightly disappointing. We don't have European games to play, the top sides have all faltered, we won at Arsenal and they are supposedly having a nightmare and, yet, they are ahead of us and they have Wilshere, Vermaelen, Sagna all out injured most of the time. Chelsea have served up total dross this season and are ahead of us and have Essien coming back now. We spent a lot of money on players and we are still trailing these sides. How can it not be disappointing when we are behind Arsenal, most goals conceded away in the league, playing champions league, hardly spend any money. If our aim was to be behind a team that people are saying their manager has taken them as far as he can, then we are setting our sights too low.

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  30. I thought we'd be ahead of Arsenal, given the troubles they have had and seeing as they are using players like Benayoun and losing 8-2 at Old Trafford. We went to their place, put them to the sword, did anyone think, at that time, that we'd be trailing them? Worst thing is that both they and Chelsea will probably improve now, so how is that not disappointing, we won at both of their grounds!

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