Raheem Sterling is Manchester City’s top goal-scorer, but still has room for improvement, according to Pep Guardiola.

Sterling is City’s top scorer with 12 goals in all competitions as Guardiola’s men dominate both domestically and in the Champions League.

City sit eight points clear of closest challengers Manchester United at the top of the league table and have won all five of their European fixtures so far.

Guardiola has backed former Liverpool attacker Sterling – who scored City’s winner in a 2-1 victory over Huddersfield Town on Sunday – to continue improving and play a starring role in the club’s pursuit of the title.

‘The way we want to play as a team helps individual performances,’ he said. ‘Like I said many times, Sterling is still young and there are a lot of things he can do better.

‘Not just Raheem, yesterday in training the players who didn’t play against Huddersfield trained amazing.’

City face Southampton on Wednesday in a match that will see Guardiola reunited with former Barcelona teammate Mauricio Pellegrino.

‘I watched some Southampton games a few weeks ago,’ he continued.

‘Mauricio made an amazing job at Alaves last season. They had a lot of young players and had a really good team.

‘We were together for one or two seasons. It was an amazing experience. He was so curious about football – he was always talking about tactics.

‘I am very pleased that tomorrow I will see him after a long time. After the game, we will speak a little bit.

‘On the pitch, he had a lot of courage. He was an intelligent player. We had a great relationship and I have a lot of memories of him.

‘We are focused on what we have to do on Wednesday evening.’

Southampton head to Manchester on the back of a 4-1 victory over Everton.

-This story originally appeared on FourFourTwo.co.za