Sterling vs Son, who is better ?

A thread

To compare them first, I will use the basic stats (all comp + national team) :

Goals | Goals p90

Son : 174 | 0.48
Sterling : 143 | 0.40

Son wins it in for goalscoring

I like the fact that they played basically the same amount of minutes in their career, 41 minute difference

Assists | Assists p90

Sterling : 95 | 0.26
Son : 83 | 0.23

Sterling looks like the better creator here too, but here are some in depth stats that don’t take finishing into account : (league games since 14/15)

xA | xA p90

Sterling : 44.82 | 0.24
Son : 28.66 | 0.19

Son is playing with one of the best finishers in the world, Kane. While Sterling is playing with Aguero who still is a good finisher but far from Kane (finishing, not goalscoring).

Gabriel Jesus remains the main reason why Sterling is unlucky with his assists, horrible finisher

But we want more than G+A from a winger. This is why we will compare more aspects.

Dribbles p90 | Shot creating dribbles p90

Sterling : 2.6 | 0.54
Son : 2.1 | 0.50

Sterling is the better dribbler. Dribbles are league + UCL overall and SCD are since 17/18 only

An other great stat is to see how many actions from them ends up in shots

Shot creating actions p90 | Goal creating actions p90

Sterling : 4.17 | 0.71
Son : 3.41 | 0.70

Sterling wins it in this domain and this also proves how Son is playing with better finishers than Sterling

A lot of stats about goal impact have been used, now let’s take a look on their involvement in buildup (p90)

Yards progressed (passing) | Progressive distance (carries)

Sterling : 97.8 | 184.4
Son : 93.1 | 153.7

Sterling is more involved, league stats since 17/18 only

An other interesting stat to use is pressing, how often do they regain possession after pressing ? Basically their defensive contribution

Successful pressures p90 | Successful pressure %

Sterling : 4.05 | 30.9%
Son : 4.65 | 24.8%

Similar numbers, no one stands out here

Finished to compare their career, now let’s see who’s better in big games. Stats vs the big 6 in PL + UCL games vs top 5 leagues :

Sterling : 33 goals, 26 assists, 0.61 G+A per game
Son : 19 goals, 9 assists, 0.45 G+A per game

Sterling clearly is the better big game player

Why do people think Son is better ?

1) Son is likeable
2) Recency bias
3) Sterling is a bad finisher

G-xG since 14/15 :

Son : +23.23
Sterling : -3.62

Son is a way better finisher, but his positioning is way worse than Sterling, doesn’t make Son a better player

Conclusion :

Son is a better goalscorer than Sterling, not by the biggest margin but still. On the other hand Sterling is way more complete and a way better big game player which is a very important part of the game

Sterling is better

End of the thread