Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Liverpool Starlet Ibe Out To Emulate Sterling

Liverpool winger Jordon Ibe wants to emulate the success of Raheem Sterling and break into the first team.

Sterling starred for Liverpool in the second half of last season, scoring nine goals in 33 Premier League appearances as the Reds finished runners-up behind Manchester City and earning a place in England's World Cup squad.

The Three Lions star started 2013-14 at the age of 18, as old as Ibe is now, and the latter is keen to capitalise of Brendan Rodgers's willingness to trust in youth.

"He's only a year older than me so I need to follow in his footsteps and watch all of the other attacking players," Ibe told the club's official website of Sterling.

"He's done well and scored a lot of goals. He's working hard all the time in training and impressing the manager. Because he's young, players are helping him so hopefully they can do the same for me."

Ibe has set his sights on more first-team action at Liverpool this season but knows that the club may make several further additions to their squad after the big-money sale of Luis Suarez to Barcelona, with Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Emre Can already having moved to Anfield.

"For me personally, I'm trying to get into the first team and hopefully get minutes," the youngster continued.

"I'll try to do well in pre-season first and see how it goes. I'm still quite young, I'm only 18 so I need to stay grounded, watch the senior players in my position, keep working hard and hopefully I can do well this season.

"I thought I did well in the last game [a post-season friendly against Shamrock Rovers] and other youngsters did well. It's just about working hard in pre-season and most of all impressing in pre-season and on tour."

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