Quantcast
Featured

What next for Daniel Sturridge at Liverpool?

|
Image for What next for Daniel Sturridge at Liverpool?
The Reds striker has been struck down with another injury over night

The Reds striker has been struck down with another injury over night

A few weeks ago Live4liverpool.com contributed to a piece for the MailOnline regarding whether the club should ‘stick or twist’ with Liverpool and England star Daniel Sturridge.

The piece was supposed to argue both sides of whether or not the Reds should persevere with Sturridge or look into options for letting him go after a succession of injuries that have crippled almost the entirety of his Liverpool career so far.

As it happened, both Live4liverpool.com and the other contributing site argued that, while the injuries he’s suffered are a major concern and incredibly frustrating for both the player and his club, at the end of the day Sturridge is just too good to give up on.

At each setback there are a few more fans irate, angry and almost hateful at the striker’s perceived weaknesses – both mental and physical. It would also be a lie to say that most of us don’t feel some sort of irritation or anger (at least) at his latest setback.

Sturridge barely played half an hour of the game on Sunday, and it wasn’t exactly what you’d call a blood and thunder affair, particularly with Liverpool struggling to break the home side down and barely looking too concerned about pushing themselves in the process.

How does a player suffer so many injuries? Is his body truly so weak or fragile? It stands to reason that the world’s best athletes would be the most fragile. After all, they push themselves further than others, so their bodies are going to be more finely tuned and prone to suffering minor tweaks or knocks that could manifest as something much worse if not allowed to heal properly.

But Sturridge has spent the best part of the last year and a half wrapped in cotton wool. Whereas Arsene Wenger took the Roy Hodgson route of ‘testing his resolve’ where Alexis Sanchez was concerned a week ago, Liverpool have treated Sturridge like a new born baby of some rare and almost extinct animal; he is given every opportunity to find full fitness and generally coaxed slowly back in to the fold.

Such was the case on this occasion too. Sturridge was given a short runout prior to his return against Southampton on Wednesday, where he even then only managed 58 minutes of action and was actually seen grimacing and holding his thigh at one stage.

A brief spell against Newcastle from the 62 minute mark saw the striker look tentative but still manage to draw more concern from the Newcastle centre backs than Benteke, Firmino or any of the attacking players that tried before him to break them down.

So at this juncture, we again have to ask the question: has the time come for Sturridge to be considered surplus to requirements at Anfield?

It’s still a tough question.

Can Liverpool really afford to continue to persevere with Sturridge through these injuries spells?

Can Liverpool really afford to continue to persevere with Sturridge through these injuries spells?

If you briefly browsed social media last night shortly after the news of his injury, the overwhelming response was ‘yes, he is’. But social media shouldn’t be taken as a true indication of the overall truth. After all, the angriest people are usually the most loud. Those that simply felt sadness and frustration no doubt shook their heads, muttered ‘bloody hell Sturridge, not again’ and turned their laptop or phone off for the night.

On the one hand, Sturridge has now missed more games than he’s started in a Liverpool shirt. Not only that, but he’s suffered 8 separate injuries since the start of last season, keeping him out for a combined spell of 57 games out of 81 since August last year. The percentage of games he’s been available for have  steadily dropped since he joined the club.

However, you also have to look at the financial implications of this, not just that the club are missing a top class forward player at a time when they are still desperately missing a regular goalscorer.

According to a ‘leak’ of the club’s wage structure in July this year, Sturridge was the club’s second top earner, on £120,000 per week. Whilst a report from ESPN in 2014 claimed that Sturridge’s last contract saw him double his (reported) £70,000 wages in his latest contract. So that would mean you could take a stab at the fact that the 26 year old costs the club somewhere between £6,240,000 and £7,280,000 per year before tax.

Whichever way you look at it, that’s a hell of a lot of money. Even for a club of Liverpool’s size, and particularly for a player that will have earned a majority of that annual wage from the treatment table.

But on the other hand, there are players like Benteke, Henderson, Milner, Balotelli (who Liverpool are still reportedly paying a fair bit of wage for) that earn around the same or more that either don’t deliver regularly or have yet to truly reach a level that warrants that level of payment.

With Sturridge, you know exactly what he’s going to offer you. Even when battling for full match fitness. For those that still doubt, just look at his impact last Wednesday when he completely turned the game on it’s head at Southampton. There is only one other player in the squad that has demonstrated an ability to turn a game on it’s head – Philippe Coutinho. He’s injured too, right now, isn’t he?

Like Coutinho, if you took a quick glance back over his last few years at the club and take a look at how many points he’s won, how many crucial goals and/or assists, how many times his ability and reputation has caused the opposition to make mistakes or even simply gift us a goal, you’d probably find some very interesting statistics.

Even just being reminded of Sturridge’s goals and assists record since joining Liverpool should be enough to convince most that Liverpool really have no choice right now but to persevere once again and just hope that he comes through this spate of injuries.

There are few strikers in Europe better than Sturridge on his day, with only a handful of Europe's best above him

There are few strikers in Europe better than Sturridge on his day, with only a handful of Europe’s best above him

A record of 44 goals and 13 assists across just 72 games is an outstanding return. It’s a tally that would put him on a tier just below the likes of Messi, Suarez, Neymar and Ronaldo in terms of class. There is even an argument that Sturridge is made for La Liga and that he’d excel even more in Spanish football, but that’s a discussion for another day.

For now, Liverpool fans will continue to argue over whether Sturridge is worth keeping, and depending on the thoughts of his wage-masters and the club’s manager, that may be an argument that continues for some time. With all things considered though, Sturridge has to be allowed another opportunity to return from injury.

We have a tough spell in the next few weeks, and need every player we can get and if he can return in a couple of weeks around or just after the Christmas period he’ll be a welcome addition once again. Particularly with the FA Cup getting into full swing to add to a Capital One Cup semi final, the Europa League knockout stage and the Premier League. Basically, he will be needed. Perhaps more than ever.

But not everybody will agree. So, with some time to sleep on it, where would you stand now?

Share this article

I'm a 32 year old Liverpool fan, living in the heart of the City Centre. I've supported the club since the day I was born and have been writing articles for L4L for over 3 years, writing close over 350 articles in that time. My favorite player of the past generation is Sami Hyypia.

I am the current editor for L4L, with my day job being in R&D for the NHS.