Alan Shearer has heaped praise on Man City attacker Raheem Sterling after his latest display in an England shirt.
Sterling got a goal in the 4-0 win against Bulgaria on Saturday with Harry Kane scoring a hat-trick.
Writing in his column in the Sun, Shearer said, “I thought Raheem was excellent from the start against Bulgaria.
“It was slow and pedestrian-like in the first half and he was the one trying to get England going by injecting pace into the game.
“Raheem has taken his game to another level in the last couple of years. With his pace, know-how and ability, a front three of him, Harry and Marcus Rashford is pretty fearsome.”
For club and country
Sterling has completely transformed his game under Pep Guardiola at Man City.
He never managed a double-digit haul in the Premier League for Liverpool, with his best season in 13/14 when he scored nine.
The pattern was the same in the 15/16 and 16/17 seasons for Man City, before he made his big breakthrough.
He scored 18 in the 17/18 season and 17 in the 18/19 season, before finally finding the same sort of form for England.
He only scored two goals in his first 45 games for England, but now has seven in his last seven, including a hat-trick in the game against the Czech Republic.
Talking on the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast show (talkSPORT, Monday, 8.30am), Ray Parlour said if he carried on in the same vein he would be a “future Ballon d’Or winner’.
According to WyScout, his xG is now almost identical for club and country, with 0.35 for Man City and 0.36 for England over 90 minutes. That is a fearsome statistic.