Pep Guardiola sees no reason why Raheem Sterling cannot break through the 30-goal barrier for Manchester City this season.
England winger Sterling has started the new campaign in sparkling form, opening the scoring against Liverpool in the Community Shield before netting a hat-trick in last weekend s 5-0 demolition of West Ham.
The 24-year-old hit 17 Premier League goals last season and 25 in all competitions as City won an unprecedented domestic treble.
Sterling s West Ham treble brought up 50 top-flight goals in City colours, 38 of which have come since the start of the 2017-18 campaign.
Guardiola has no desire to set targets for his forward line but has no doubt the ex-Liverpool man s numbers can improve further.
Yeah, hopefully. It will be good for him and for the team, he said, ahead of Saturday s keenly anticipated home game against Tottenham.
When he s in front of the goal, he puts it in the net. So, he can do it, yeah. He scored 25 [last season] and 25 to 30 is only five goals. He can do it.
But I don t know. I never spoke with Sergio [Aguero] or Gabriel [Jesus] or Raz, with any of the people up front, about what are their dreams and targets and these kinds of things. I don t know, honestly. They are happy when they are scoring goals.
I think goals are a consequence of the way we play their mood, how the team s playing, no injuries.
I wouldn t judge him if he scored 30 goals, or 35 or 20. When he scores goals, I m happy. But if he does what he has to do for him and the team, it s enough.
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— Manchester City (@ManCityFra)
Guardiola has experienced a number of enjoyable tussles with Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino, dating back to the Argentinian claiming his first senior coaching win at Espanyol with a victory over mighty city rivals Barcelona in 2009.
When that rivalry transferred from Catalonia to the Premier League in 2016, new City boss Guardiola won his first six straight top-flight games before his side were ransacked in a 2-0 defeat to Spurs at White Hart Lane.
City have not lost a league game to Tottenham since, winning the past four, but were dumped out of the Champions League in April when Pochettino s men prevailed in a dramatic quarter-final.
About Tottenham, I think my colleague can speak better about his team, Guardiola said. I said from the first day when we played at White Hart Lane and lost 2-0, I never said a wrong word about the capacity, quality and possibilities of this team, the manager and the club.
I said many times, it is not necessary to repeat again. They are a strong team, a good team.
It was not hard to detect a slightly terse tone to the praise of a man who took umbridge at Guardiola labelling Tottenham as the Harry Kane team in 2017.
Asked how good a job Pochettino had done in north London, Guardiola indicated his praise might fall on deaf ears.
Overwhelming, extraordinary, I said many, many times, he added,
I don’t know if Pochettino receives many compliments as other managers like me, I don’t think so.
My opinion about him is high standards, even if he doesn’t believe me. He’s a top, top, top, top manager.
