A player at the top of his game, Raheem Sterling is the man to carry England's World Cup hopes

The road to greatness remains narrow and precarious, and two encouraging friendly displays don’t really change that. But what we can say is that as of now, Sterling is a man at the top of his game

It is upon the Manchester City forward whom England’s hopes of making any sort of indentation in this summer’s World Cup seem increasingly to rest (Getty)

Marco Parolo’s right leg comes in like a swinging fist. Raheem Sterling sprawls to the turf. And in those fractions of a second when he feels his feet giving way underneath him and gravity taking its course, you wonder whether the Sterling of a couple of years ago, when the weight of expectation and pressures of early success were all getting just a bit much, would simply have stayed on the ground and taken the free-kick. Most players, after all, would.

But Raheem Sterling in the early part of 2018 is not most players, and as the Wembley crowd howls in disdain, Sterling is already getting up. He doesn’t want the free-kick. He doesn’t want the whistle to blow and Italy to regroup and somebody else to take a pot-shot at goal from 30 yards. He wants the ball, now, at his feet.

And so he simply gets up and carries on. That inimitable, almost dainty dribbling style, his forearms quirkily poised, as if he’s trying to beat an entire defence while also carrying two plates of food. Whereupon a disgruntled and breathless Parolo charges in and finishes the job by piling in from behind. Jesse Lingard takes the free-kick quickly, Jamie Vardy scores and England are ahead.

But on a night when England took another faltering step in the direction of vague competence, the real story here was Sterling: a player not simply in form, but in tune. Whisper it, but the player most England fans will want to swaddle in cotton wool and put in secure storage for the next three months is not Harry Kane, but Sterling. For it is upon the Manchester City forward whom England’s hopes of making any sort of indentation in this summer’s World Cup seem increasingly to rest.

There seems to be very little secret about the fact that England’s lack of a creative midfielder is their main impediment to genuine world-class status. And so the main revelation of this international break has been Gareth Southgate’s apparent earmarking of Sterling for that role. Second striker, No 10, roaming playmaker, whatever you want to call it: against both Holland and Italy, Sterling made a strong case not simply to start at the World Cup, but to have a side built around him.

There remains a school of thought that Sterling still lacks the intelligence and incision to be a long-term No 10. That while his pace can be a useful asset to stretch better defences on the counter-attack, against the deep massed defences of the sort England can expect at the World Cup, Sterling’s best position remains out wide, where he plays for Manchester City.

Raheem Sterling tussles for possession with Davide Zappacosta (Getty)

It is an argument that ignores two main factors. Firstly, as a defending team, you would far rather see Sterling out wide, where you can restrict his angles, than in the centre. The prospect of a double-marked Sterling simply laying the ball back for Kieran Trippier to swing hopeful crosses into a packed Panama penalty area is simply too dispiriting to contemplate.

And secondly, it ignores Sterling’s own rapid development over the last couple of seasons, his dogged resistance to pigeonholing, the innate footballing intelligence that existed long before Pep Guardiola got his hairy hands on him. As long ago as 2013 Brendan Rodgers had identified his playmaking abilities at Liverpool, often stationing him at No 10 behind Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez in their unforgettable title-challenging season.

Since then, Sterling’s game has kicked up to another level. He may lack David Silva’s passing range, Kevin de Bruyne’s field of vision, but his first touch has improved, so too his decision-making and movement off the ball. And when you factor in his dribbling ability, in an area of the pitch where space is tightest and close control most important, there are few English players with Sterling’s ability to retain, recycle, electrify and terrify in equal measure.

Sterling has made a strong case not simply to start at the World Cup, but to have a side built around him (Getty)

Indeed, as Sterling wove his way through, past and around the Italian defence on Tuesday night, it was hard not to be reminded of England’s last great midfield dribbling genius. Perhaps it is simply coincidence that Sterling is the same age now, 23, that Paul Gascoigne was when he left his mark on the 1990 World Cup. And you certainly wouldn’t want to push the comparison too far.

But when he gets the ball these days, you can sense that same irrepressible love of the ball, that same instinct to entertain, that pregnant potential. You can see the same quick feet and quick thinking that distinguished Gascoigne in his early years, before injuries and alcohol ruined him. You can glimpse the same brutal, ironclad certainty, the sense that this is his stage and he alone is fit to fill it. And you can feel that same electricity, the tingle of magnetism that swirls around a packed stadium when it senses that something might happen. And if a crowd can feel it, so can an opposition defence.

A lot can happen in three months of club football. A lot can happen in four weeks of international football. The road to greatness remains narrow and precarious, and two encouraging friendly displays don’t really change that. But what we can say is that as of now, Sterling is a man at the top of his game, a player in that glorious sweet spot where ability meets maturity, where swaggering confidence meets unfinished business.