The Curious Case of Daniel Sturridge
By JonJo
The honeymoon might be over but that honeymoon feeling isn’t going anywhere. It’s been just over a year since Jürgen Klopp took the reins of Liverpool and things are looking the brightest they have in a hot minute at Anfield. Liverpool currently sit atop the table in England and having no European competition this season should bode well for a title race. The infamous gegenpress, Coutinho finding consistency, Hendo being class, LOLlana transforming into Lallana, no more Moreno or Mignolet on the manager’s sheet every week. It seems that everything is finally going according to plan. Everything but part time footballer, part time Instagrammer Daniel Sturridge. We’ve seen him feature this season as both the 9 and out wide but neither look to be a good fit for the 27 year old Brit. Sturridge has played in 8 of Liverpool’s 11 league games this campaign but has yet to find the back of the net. Yes, I’m aware he bagged a brace vs Tottenham in the EFL Cup but the Spurs fielded an XI that resembled an American Football team with numbers like 38 and 53 so please save your opinions and tweets about Sturridge being “back.”
Sturridge who is now in his fifth year with the Reds has only registered 76 league appearances, a downright embarrassing number for a player we hold in such high regard. Sturridge seems to be out of favor with both the fans and Klopp. With winter on the cusp, something has to come right for the striker. Liverpool will lose Sadio Mane in January as he joins Senegal in the African Cup of Nations. With African Ronaldo away that leaves a hole in what is arguably the most threating counter attack across football, enter Daniel Sturridge (nh if applicable). With a seemingly easy fixture list over the last weeks of 2016 Sturridge will hopefully find his confidence once more.
Now let’s dive a little deeper into the problems, issues, woes, whatever the hell you want to call it with Daniel Sturridge. A footballer who was once touted as one of the best on the planet has had quite the roller coaster of a career since joining Liverpool from Chelsea in the winter of 2012/13. What looked to be a match made in footballing heaven, the striker found the back of the net 10 times in league play even though he only featured in 14 matches.
The 2013/14 campaign, this is triggering and very painful for me to write about so I’m going to do myself a favor and skip over a lot of the details. Sturridge, Luis Suarez, Raheem Sterling. Fuck. I’m sad all over again. To put it simply, this is the final year of Sturridge being a footballer. 21 goals in 29 league appearances, second in the league behind teammate Suarez. This season was destined to be the year Liverpool finally lifted the illusive Premier League Title but an untimely reenactment of a Chazz Michael Michaels routine from Captain Steven Gerrard saw that dream come to a screeching halt. This is also the year Sturridge began missing large portions of the season with injuries. He sat out a total of 17 matches due to injury.
The 2014/15 season left little to say about the Doctor’s Note Merchant. I was fairly certain Sturridge would call it quits and take on selling Fit Tea and Waist Trainers as a full time gig this season. He featured in only 12 league matches due to injuries. 3 separate injuries saw him miss a total of 266 days or 40 matches, all complaints can be sent to Roy Hodgson for this.
Now for the 2015/16 season, Sturridge missed the start of the season still recovering from the injuries of the prior campaign. We saw him return in late September only to pick up a knee injury in mid-October that would see him sidelined for another month. He returned from this knee injury to play in the League Cup in the first week of December, the weekend following his return he went down with a hamstring injury that sidelined the striker until February.
In total, Sturridge has missed about 450 days since signing with Liverpool just under 4 years ago. Since Klopp took over in October 2015 the world has seen Sturridge fall out of the manager’s good graces. From being a guaranteed starter (if/when fit) to a late game sub when the result has been all but finalized. So what caused this shocking change? Is this fast pace gegenpress system not a good fit for him? Is there more to it? Nobody really knows for sure but it seems to be a combination of it all. Klopp’s gegenpress system requires nonstop movement and a high work rate, something Sturridge struggles with if the ball isn’t at his feet. The matches Sturridge has featured in you can clearly see our offense stagnate. Sturridge whines when he doesn’t get the ball but does little to get himself involved. When he does, it’s often him drifting deep and picking the ball up from a holding midfield role which leaves us without an outlet on one side of the pitch. His decision making in the final third has been excellent but his technique and finishing has been far below what we used to see from him. With Danny Ings out for the season with another knee injury, Divock Origi seemingly losing the confidence Klopp once had in him and Mane leaving for international duty, Sturridge will certainly get his chances to impress.
The question remains, does Liverpool give Sturridge another chance or is it time they cut ties and find a replacement in the transfer market? For me, the latter of the two options seems the best solution. Plenty of teams will come calling if Sturridge is listed for transfer and Liverpool should be able to get a large fee for the striker if they do decide to go this route. Only time will tell.
