Fowler: Blame the officials NOT Raheem Sterling for ‘phantom’ penalty blunder

Raheem Sterling has come under fire again this time for his part in the ‘phantom’ Champions League penalty.

If there’s any flak flying around, any negativity, any barbed criticism then the Manchester City player appears to cop it.

The penalty that wasn’t against Shakhtar Donesk brought back memories of 21 years ago when playing for Liverpool I went tumbling in the box over Arsenal’s England keeper David Seaman.

The referee gave a penalty. I immediately waved my arms and told him that he hadn’t touched me.

These days it probably would be a penalty because there was intent there to block me but I had jumped over the challenge.

I also didn’t want David, an international team-mate at the time, sent off for appearing to bring me down.

That would have been a double whammy, a penalty that probably wasn’t and the Gunners keeper sent off.

I still had to take the penalty and I don’t know if it was a psychological thing but it wasn’t the best effort even though I wasn’t looking to miss on purpose.

David stopped it but it spun out to Jason McAteer who slotted it into the net for his first goal for Liverpool.

I ended up with a UEFA Fair Play certificate and thanks to me, Jason’s first goal saw him eventually starring in a wash and go hair shampoo advert!

I’m still waiting for my bonus!

But on a serious note people have had a go at Raheem Sterling for not owning up to his freak fall but I wouldn’t blame him.

He didn’t dive and although he never said it wasn’t a penalty to the referee it’s not up to him to make the decision.

I actually burst out laughing when the penalty was awarded.

In all fairness it’s the so called assistant behind the goal who should be ostracised.

The referee might have been blind sided so he hasn’t seen the incident properly but surely the guy stood behind the goal must have had some idea of what really happened?

This proves once and for all how pointless they are.

In fact they are as useful as Christmas Tree salesmen in January!

You see all the pulling and grabbing at corners and you’re waiting for them to alert the referee to take action but they just stand there looking oblivious to everything.

So instead of blaming the referee, or having a go at Sterling, turn your attention to the worthless officials stuck behind the goal in European games.

Obviously all this opens up again the debate about whether to introduce VAR.

But honestly if the assistant behind the goal was any use then no one would have needed VAR not to award a spot-kick.

And once again it’s open season on Raheem on the eve of a critical Manchester derby.

He is the victim of the typical footballer’s syndrome – everyone has an opinion about a player without really knowing them, what they might do behind the scenes.

Okay at times Raheem can come across as a bit brash, driving flash cars for instance.

But tell me a footballer in the same category who doesn’t drive a really up market, lovely car?

He looks after his family, he does a lot of work for charity.

He does a lot of good work that goes unnoticed.

Maybe someone at Manchester City should come out and point some of these things out to try and paint him in a better light.

Everyone seems to talk about the negative stuff about him and I’m afraid a lot of people judge him through this. But really they don’t know him.

My biggest advice for any fan is before you give a player stick try and get to know the real person.

Don’t always listen to the knocking stories which often accompany today’s big players.

I’m afraid the mentality of some people is to always knock someone who appears to have the world at his feet.

In this country for whatever reason we don’t seem to like people who are successful.

It’s always been the case in a number of sports over the years.

As a footballer Sterling is now surrounded by unbelievable players at Manchester City.

That’s not to say he wasn’t influenced by the likes of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez at Liverpool. But this has helped progress his game.

As an individual he has also obviously worked out what’s needed to be done to improve himself.

There’s also been some tough love from his manager Pep Guardiola, something that Raheem himself has admitted.

At times he’s been pulled to one side and told how to improve his technique, sometimes just simple things like how to control the ball better at speed.

Looking at Raheem as a player I believe he has steadily improved.

I always thought during his early days at Liverpool that he was a good player but since then he has matured and added more to his game.

People will still say he doesn’t score enough – although his record is much better than it was – that he at times falls to pieces in the box but there is a lot more to his game.

Give him the ball now and he is comfortable and confident with it. He also frees up space for his team-mates.

You still can’t call him prolific in front of goal but he is a really good player.

But as I have pointed out for some reason he still attracts lots of criticism.

He gets stick for all sorts of things. He doesn’t deserve most of it because in my opinion he is quality.

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