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6) Raheem Sterling
Who is he?: Sterling is a 19 year old winger who plays for Liverpool. He plays for the England U-21 side and has made 1 appearance for the senior team.
Back in 2013: After a great first half of the 2012-13 season, Sterling was taken out of the firing line in 2013. The diminutive winger was perhaps overplayed a bit by Rodgers and the signings of Coutinho and Sturridge meant that Liverpool’s front line had been bolstered. Despite limited opportunities in the second half of the season, he did make 24 appearances in the league, 19 of them being starts, and registered 2 goals and 6 assists. He’s continued his development this season and has made 11 starts and 6 substitute appearances in the league scoring 3 goals and made a further 4 more.
After making his only senior appearance for England in late 2012, Sterling has been part of the U-21 set-up in 2013. He’s started all 3 of the qualifiers so far including the 9-0 rout over San Marino, a game in which he helped himself to a brace.
Looking to 2014: Sterling has continued to make strides and has hopefully made an effort to sort out his off-field problems. Liverpool are part of an interesting battle for 4th place and the pacy wide man will be looking to help them bring back Champions League football to Anfield. With respect to his World Cup hopes, if Walcott does miss out due to injury then Sterling could be one of the replacements lined up to make the squad.
5) Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
Who is he?: Oxlade-Chamberlain is a 20 year old, who currently plays for Arsenal, and hails from the famous Southampton Youth system. He’s a right winger, but can also play through the middle and on the left. He’s already made 13 appearances for the senior international team, scoring thrice.
Back in 2013: There have been better years for AOC, but 2013 was by no means a bad year. The biggest problem for him was the competition he faced from a lot of in form Arsenal stars like Ramsey, Rosicky, Cazorla and Ozil. He was mostly a substitute in the first half of the year as Arsenal stormed into the final Champions League spot. He was a regular in the cup competitions, though, but couldn’t make much headway into the team. In the first half of this season, he’d been troubled by injury. He managed to make an assist on the first day loss against Villa, and made his next Premier League appearance last night against Villa.
Internationally, he’s been in fine form for the 3 Lions. He managed to get on the score-sheet in the 2-2 draw at the Maracana, and has been a regular spark of creativity for them. Sadly for him, he missed a lot of crucial games due to his knee injury.
Looking to 2014: Oxlade-Chamberlain is a very talented footballer, and has a long future ahead of him, especially if he stays at Arsenal, where he’ll get the best guidance. For now, he’ll be working hard to win his place in the Arsenal side, and try to get Hodgson to pick him for the World Cup, where he has to compete with the likes of Townsend, Lallana and Milner.
