15 Oct 2013

'He has great potential' - Barnes hails 'exciting' €6m attacker. Better than Sterling...?

Spurs winger Andros Townsend is in fine form for club and country at the moment, and Liverpool legend John Barnes believes he has all the attributes to become one of the Premier League's top players.

Discussing Towsend's recent goalscoring performance for England, Barnes told the Daily Mail:

"Andros certainly looked the part, and he played with a lot of composure.

"We know he has the ability, and we don’t want to get too carried away and say he is the finished article, but there’s no getting away from it: he has great potential".


Ex-Red Michael Owen is also a fan, and believes that Townsend should be an 'automatic selection' for England's crucial qualifier with Poland. He told BBC Radio Five:

“Andros has been playing particularly well for Tottenham and it was no surprise to me that he played. We needed to score goals and we needed to win the game. He is quick, exciting and direct and he can beat a man. It was a very good move from Roy Hodgson to play him"

Former Spurs boss Harry Redknapp is also a big fan of the €6m-rated attacker, and in a recent interview, he raved:

"He [Townsend] will be a top player. He gets at people, he attacks you. He is relentless. He just runs at you, runs at you, runs at you. He has been first-class".

Liverpool's Raheem Sterling received a call-up to the England squad over the weekend, but it looks like Townsend poses a serious threat to his future international ambitions. Granted, the Spurs man is four years older, but if he retains his form, then the Reds youngster could end up being a perennial bench-warmer for England for the foreseeable future.

When Sterling reaches the age of 22, will he be as good as Townsend?



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20 comments:

  1. Sterling needs to cement a first team place at Liverpool before he worries about starting for England.


    He needs to sort out his personal life and start behaving like a young lad that is still trying to "make it" as a footballer rather than acting like someone who thinks he's already there!!

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  2. I still believe there is a very good chance Ibe will be a better player, i think its a matter of wait and see.

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  3. First thing Sterling needs to do is to stop doing stupid things and focus on his career and his kid. Not the babymama, not other babymamas or any other type of female, not cars, not clothes, not music and how he'd love to be Snoop DoggLion, not Andros Townsend, not 30k or 40k or 50k a week, definitely not his agent but his career and his kid and only that.

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  4. please sterling is only 18
    townsden is 22
    IMO sterling should be a right back
    like marcelo and cole were full backs
    he is good at attacking but not enough for a top club like lfc
    so at full back he could be perfect

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  5. thoose saying he is too small
    that does not stop jordi alba,marcelo,cole,baines,lahm etc

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  6. I think the main issue is not his size, it's that he can't defend...

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  7. The Dark Joe Allen9:54 am, October 15, 2013

    Sterling will start to improve at the second he will be less anxious. All the immediate tomorrow media talk doesn't help of course, and the football clubs going along with it parallel-like makes it worse; The confused 'modern' manager's.

    Sterling has it in him to be a very good player and good enough for LFC. If it was 5 or 10 years ago he would have already be an integral in-questionable part of the squad.

    All this fuzz is depressing really. In the summer i suggested he is ahead of himself and should go on loan to a club whose good but less stressful [maybe Swansea would have done him grace]; I got slated for this opinion; Look what fans are saying now.


    Well, at the end of the day it will be up to him, harsh as it is; He has to lean back and make the correct play decisions before getting carried away to out preform everything; But what youth get's this way of thinking inherited really, and then get's the opportunity to flourish it?

    I predict a tough couple of years for him that may end has a tragedy by some standards, and may end the other way which I've mentioned above at the beginning, while I hope he will abruptly start to rise above threw this current year and stabilize a certain ground he plays out of.

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  8. Its good for Sterling to have competition there because that's the only way that kid is going to work his way out to be the best somehow. I still feel Ibe will beat both Sterling and Townsend provided he works like he's doing currently and goes on to fulfill his potential that he gives glimpses of.

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  9. He can't defend? I don't agree with that. He is actually quite solid IMO in defense. Positionally he knows where to be and is decent in the tackle. I vaguely remember him having quite a high tackle success rate and just from watching him play he is good at tracking back and winning back possession.
    I'm not saying that I agree with playing him at RB, because I don't. He wouldn't and shouldnt displace Johnson or McLaughin who should be given more chances. So as a RB I don't see him there but I do think he can defend.

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  10. Townsend is miles ahead of Sterling at the moment. It's so nice to see someone replicating their exciting club form for England - sadly Barnes never really managed that. His attitude sounds like it is spot on and Sterling should definitely take note. 9 loan spells and he never moaned. Credit to Roy for throwing him in last week and Harry for doing so well with him at QPR. I'm going tonight COME ON ENGLAND!!!

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  11. They are very different players. Andros is more of a Moses or Valencia type of winger, more direct and physical. Sterling is more of a tricky player.

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  12. He defends as well as Dani Alves.

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  13. sterling needs to bulk up and improve his crossing and passing accuracy and develop some intelligence .....then he he will displace townsend easily ......with time he can get those atttributes i daresay

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  14. OK...I just watched the second half of Eng vs Pol. I listened to it on the radio as I was driving home and all I heard during the first half is how great Townsend played. The I watched the second half and wondered what all the shock and awe was about. All I saw was mental after physical mistake until he was replaced. I actually applauded when he was replaced because I thought he flubbed two great chances with a wasted shot from an acute angle with Rooney and Sturridge in the box not closely marked and then an abyssmal cross the two strikers charging into the area about 5 minutes later. He lost the ball easily, allowed it to bounce over his head out of bounds, tried the 20 yard pass to himself down the right and was beaten to his own ball. I was underwhelmed.

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  15. Sterling will improve most definitely on the field. In his age group he's as good as any winger out there. Under the right tutelage and his own efforts he can fulfill his potential. I think he does good defending he might not have the physique yet but he's still a hand full. If u don't believe me ask Valencia

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  16. We don't keep the ball as well as Barca.

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  17. Way too son to figure. RS needs a lot of work on his first and second touch and passing,passing,passing.....

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  18. Sterling showed nothing this year. Was a big fan, thought he will be a starter for at least 8 years, but now i just do not see it happening. Ibe should be our first choice of youngster substitute.

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  19. Townsend has been managed well and loaned out for the past 4 seasons where he got more 1st team opportunities which helped him develop and now a 1st team player for Tottenham

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  20. I don't know if Sterling will be as good as Townsend at 22.
    But he is definitely better at 18 than Townsend was. What is at stake is how much Sterling wants to learn and how focussed he remains
    All this off the field stuff has to stop, and he needs to make better decisions on the ball
    Townsend only started playing like this the last year or so remember

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