In the Premier League's December Player of the Year awards, Manchester City goalscorer Sterling was successfully elected, which is the second time he has won the award after a gap of three years. In this year's selection list, Sterling competed with Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung-min, Chelsea's Mount, Leicester City's Madison and Arsenal's Odegaard, but Sterling was successfully selected with efficient data of 5 goals and 1 assist in 5 games. The word efficiency seems to be rarely associated with Sterling, after all, in the impression of most fans, Sterling is still the happy boy.
In the past few games, Manchester City have not only faced teams in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League, but also opponents such as Leicester City, Wolves and Villa. These teams are all very difficult teams in the Premier League at the moment, but Sterling has contributed to all three teams, scoring 2 goals against Leicester City, 1 goal against Wolves and 1 assist against Villa. Such a performance is indeed convincing enough to make him the Premier League's player of the month in December.
In fact, This season's Sterling did not get enough trust at the beginning of the season, or from the second half of last season, Sterling needed to wait for opportunities on the bench. Especially on the stage of last season's Champions League final, the long period of inaction was questioned by fans, which made Sterling's public opinion come to the cusp of the storm, and even once reported that Sterling was leaving Manchester City. However, a summer passed, Sterling was not exchanged by Manchester City for Kane, nor did he join Arsenal, he remained at Manchester City.
In the past, Sterling left an impression on everyone mainly because of the quality of the shots, and after finishing the game, it was often impossible to find where the goal was. However, in the December game, it can be clearly seen that Sterling's ability to seize opportunities has been greatly enhanced, and in the match against Leicester City, there are 3 shots on goal and 2 goals. Such a performance is actually not common for Sterling, but with such a great performance in this season's game, what did Guardiola do to Sterling?
First of all, as a manager, Guardiola did not give up on Sterling when he was not performing well, but gave him a lot of opportunities. Secondly, in Manchester City's tactics, although Sterling tried a lot of positions, he still appeared on the left side more often most of the time, which is also his favorite position. In the end, after Sterling scored, it was clear that Guardiola gave him more trust, and constantly scoring goals can also accumulate his confidence, and finally awakened the former British star.