Sturridge’s comments about his role dominated the back pages.
Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge celebrates scoring their fourth goal
Jurgen Klopp will have woken up this morning to nearly all of the back pages carrying the splash of Daniel Sturridge being unhappy with the role he has been used in.
Sturridge also said that he will do his job for the team but that is being overlooked by claims he is ‘unhappy’.
The player was used in a role off the right hand side in the 2-0 defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor last weekend and was largely ineffective. It was a role that he was used in for England at Euro 2016 and he found himself on the periphery there too.
Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge in action with Burnley’s Steven Defour
Sturridge is quoted by nearly outlet, including the Liverpool Echo, saying: “Of course it’s more difficult for me to play wide because I am a centre-forward.
“When I’m in the middle I have clarity on movements and things that I have been been doing for years. You do them on auto pilot. You just do things because you are used to doing them.
“Out wide, it’s different. You have to worry about different things. It’s a different way of playing.
“I have to do a job for the team. I am not saying I am happy to do it, I am saying I have to do a job for the team. It’s a team game. If I am put in that position then I have to play there.”
Sturridge isn’t even the first player to say the position he is playing in isn’t his best one. James Milner is playing left-back for the Reds this season and admitted back in March that it is not a role he wanted to play after playing there in a Europa League tie against Manchester United.
Manchester United’s Cameron Borthwick Jackson and Liverpool’s James Milner
He told Goal at the time: “It was different. The manager asked me to play there, and I’ll always do what’s best for the team.
“I wasn’t really comfortable there. It’s not a position I want to play, but the team comes first before any individuals and we got the result we needed which is all that matters.”
Even Steven Gerrard said he wanted to play in central midfield during the Rafa Benitez era after being used on the right hand side for much of the 2005/06 season. So Sturridge is not the first, and not even the most high profile player to publicly declare that where he wants to play isn’t necessarily the position he has played recently.
He’s also right in what he says, he is a far more effective player playing through the middle. He spent a lot less time playing off the right during his cameo against Burton on Tuesday night and found the net twice in the way a typical top-class centre-forward does.
Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge scores their fifth goal
Klopp has work to do when it comes to getting all his best players into a system which suits everyone and gets the team firing on all cylinders. It wouldn’t be a major surprise to see Sturridge play in a role through the middle against Tottenham at the weekend, or from the bench given the options available. The Liverpool boss even admitted in his pre-match press conference that he didn’t want to play Sturridge out wide.
Sturridge’s comments seem to fill column inches, probably because he is a really talented footballer that can be the difference to a side achieving their goals or not over the course of a season. This just seems to be the latest in a long line of them.
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