Charlie Adam believes Raheem Sterling will become a star at Liverpool and is confident the teenager will keep his feet on the floor.
Liverpool midfielder confident club-mate will not get carried away
Charlie Adam believes Raheem Sterling has all the talent to become a star at Liverpool and is confident the teenager will keep his feet on the floor.
The 17-year-old made his first Premier League start in last Sunday's 2-2 draw with Manchester City and earned rave reviews for his performance against Kolo Toure.
Sterling's reputation has rocketed and he is now being tipped for an England call-up, which would be a remarkable achievement for a forward who has yet to play for the Under 21s.
But while Adam reckons his club-mate is destined to be a star, the Scotland international also thinks there is a need to not get carried away.
"I thought he was terrific, simple as that," the midfielder told Liverpool's
official website of Sterling. "He's got a talent and if you can give him the ball and get him running at people, it's a joy to watch.
Bandwagon
"He's learned a lot from when I joined the club as he wasn't in the first-team squad then but the manager has brought him in now.
"Since the start of pre-season, he has listened and learned off the manager and taken it on board.
"I thought he gave Kolo Toure a tough game on Sunday and he should be proud of his performance but the biggest problem when you've got young players like that is everybody jumps on the bandwagon and says he should be doing this and playing for England etc.
"Let him play 20 to 30 games for Liverpool first and then make the decision on how good he is. He's got a talent and it's a joy to play with him."
Adam added: "He is not the type of boy to go and swan about and things like that. He works hard and he learns a lot.
Tough ask
"When you are only 17 years of age it's easy to get carried away but he's at the right club and he's got the right people looking after him and that's important."
Adam's own future at Liverpool is in doubt after he was an unused substitute in the Premier League defeat by West Bromwich Albion before being left out of Brendan Rodgers' squad for the draw with City.
But he could return to the first team for Thursday's Europa League play-off second leg against Hearts at Anfield after playing the full 90 minutes of the opening meeting in Scotland.
Adam said: "It's going to take 25 players this season to do what we want to do this year and if we do get into the Europa League group stage we will be in four competitions and we will try to win them all.
"It's going to be a tough ask but we have got a lot of quality and a good squad which is going to help us."
