Daniel Sturridge

[john316]

But Sturridge has Suarez Teeing him up for sitters. That trumps anything any player has ever had to work with

Not saying he's not a great player, he is class, just that the stat isn't necessarily all about him

Gerrard was about the best midfielder in the world playing right off him at the time. Not exactly a chump playing alongside him. Plus he was the attack so every chance was pretty set up for him. Sturridge is doing his damage even with having Suarez scoring so many as well!

[dww]

I think it's hard to make those sorts of comparisons - the current team is setup to score goals first and control games and defend second, totally different to the way we looked to play under Rafa. In terms of the 'he was the attack' argument I think the fact that we have more goal threats now actually makes it easier to score in some ways - it's a bit of a six and two threes situation on which the way that would get you more goals IMO.

All that said the finishing and the runs that Sturridge is making are fantastic. best to just enjoy it for now I think. Leave the comparisons for when he breaks our hearts and moves beck to Citeh.

[Woobus]

But Sturridge has Suarez Teeing him up for sitters. That trumps anything any player has ever had to work with

Not saying he's not a great player, he is class, just that the stat isn't necessarily all about him

He was banging them in while Suarez was suspended as well.

[Rowan]

Torres had a whole system designed to accommodate him though, Sturridge is adaptable and plays across a front line according to the tactics for the match.

And Torres had peak Gerrard and Alonso behind, feeding him to score the goals.

Toughy isn't it! I'd love to know what a peak Torres could have done in this team. I'm not sure Sturridge is striking fear in the hearts of defenders like Nando at his best did. Torres terrified, ravaged, pillaged and mutilated defences that he came up against. Sturridge is just totally clinical. Defenders can't keep his movement in check.

I dunno, Dan but I think of the two it's Torres.

[Boogs]

Mark Lawrenson: Demba Ba's top class, but Sturridge needs to grow up

This is a cracking article by Lorro!


link jan 13

Danny Sturridge may have matched Demba Ba by scoring on his debut but, for me, Chelsea have got the better deal.

Two years ago Stoke wanted to take him but were frightened off by a knee injury. Since then, Ba has proved he is a top-class Premier League striker.

He has not missed a game, was top scorer at West Ham and has been in double figures two seasons running for Newcastle.

You know what you are getting with him and I think he is a really good player. I’d take him over Sturridge all day long.

Ba had a spell playing out wide at Newcastle where the goals dried up, but in the centre-forward position with the right service he will score goals.

In fact, for the money that Chelsea have paid I think he is an absolute steal. I have no idea why Liverpool decided against Ba and went for Sturridge.

They want to get into the Champions League this year and that is not an impossible task with the inconsistencies of the clubs up there.

And when you consider the amount of money that *Liverpool have laid out in previous transfer windows, £7million for a fella who has scored on a regular basis in the Premier League is small beer, isn’t it?

Ba would have helped them enormously as every season they fail to get into the *Champions League they get further away.

Everybody above them will be strengthening their teams in the summer and will continue to do so.

My reservations with *Sturridge centre around the fact that he has some growing up to do and I’m not sure whether he will be able to see the big picture on the pitch.

John Powell
Listen and learn? Daniel Sturridge talks with Brendan Rodgers

Sturridge thinks he should be in the team every week – but you then have to back that up with some kind of substance.

He is quick and he can finish and he might be lucky that Liverpool could be persuaded to move Luis Suarez into a withdrawn, left-sided position.

The would be a gamble for Brendan Rodgers because if Suarez stops scoring then people will question him.

Ba is absolute class but Sturridge a top player? I have my doubts.

RVP delivers under real pressure

I can see why so many people are tipping Luis Suarez to rival Robin van Persie for Player of the Year.

Gareth Bale and Michu must be considered too but I can’t see beyond Van Persie. The pressure has been on him this season – and he has delivered.

Yes, Suarez is doing the business in a mid-table team but the Dutchman has shot Manchester United to all sorts of wins. He scores all sorts of goals. He saved United in the Cup and has fired them to the top of the table. It has to be Van Persie for me.

Toon chiefs won't panic and sack Pardew

I don't think the Newcastle board will panic and sack Alan Pardew.

He has won only two of his last 16 games but there are things in place that bode well.

Most if not all of the players brought in either have been a success or have a resale value.

Pardew was Mike Ashley’s choice and the owner knows when Newcastle’s first 11 do not play they are robbed of a lot of quality.

Pardew is a good manager and a good man. Ashley will know he needs to be careful not to lose him.

[Daniel 7]

Toughy isn't it! I'd love to know what a peak Torres could have done in this team. I'm not sure Sturridge is striking fear in the hearts of defenders like Nando at his best did. Torres terrified, ravaged, pillaged and mutilated defences that he came up against. Sturridge is just totally clinical. Defenders can't keep his movement in check.

I dunno, Dan but I think of the two it's Torres.

The best thing about it is that it is a proper debate now - Sturridge's level is comparable to peak Torres (its higher ), and thats not something many of us would have thought possible when he signed!

[Alex]

This is a cracking article by Lorro!


link jan 13

Mark LOLrensen was an absolute legend for us. But every week he tarnishes him memory and legacy even more.

I know its an old article, but he couldnt have been more wrong

[Chazza]

Statistics show Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge is real deal as a striker
The man who has a better league goalscoring rate than his team-mate Luis Suárez could boost England's World Cup hopes



It is a familiar sight in this winter of deluge: Daniel Sturridge pointing to the sky, past the rain and clouds and towards the heavens. The Liverpool striker likes to pray; right now he seems to have a hotline to his maker. Not only has he scored in eight consecutive Premier League games – and 22 times in 26 matches this season – but he is the huge favourite to lead the line for England at the World Cup this summer. It is some turnaround for a player who left Chelsea 13 months ago with an undistinguished record of 13 goals in 63 appearances.

This season Sturridge has scored every 83 minutes in the league – which, incredibly, is better than Cristiano Ronaldo (a goal every 84 minutes), Luis Suárez (one every 86 minutes), Lionel Messi (every 95 minutes) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (every 97 minutes). Only Sergio Agüero, who averages a goal every 80 minutes, is more prolific in the major European leagues.

When asked to explain this rise into the upper echelons of the goalscoring ranks, the certainty Sturridge displays in front of goal deserts him. "I don't even really know," he said. "The manager has shown faith in me to give me an opportunity in the position that I've always played in … I've got faith in God. I pray a lot and I'm just focused totally on my job."

But there is another explanation beyond the positional or metaphysical. Sturridge's purple patch is not a wild aberration or statistical outlier. He has always been talented – as he showed by scoring eight goals in 11 games while on loan at Bolton in 2011 and nine in 19 Premier League appearances under André Villas-Boas at Chelsea – he just needed greater opportunities to show it.

True, in 129 Premier League matches, Sturridge has scored 54 goals – a bit under one every other game. But the unvarnished statistics mask the real picture: at Manchester City and Chelsea he was a bit-part actor in a giant theatre ensemble: he got a short scene here, a cameo there. Of those 129 Premier League appearances, 54 were as a substitute.

When you look at Sturridge's goal tally per 90 minutes in the Premier League across his career a dramatically different picture emerges. He has scored an average of 0.69 league goals per 90 minutes. That puts him ahead of all the other great Liverpool strikers in the Premier League era, including Michael Owen (0.59 goals every 90 minutes), Fernando Torres (0.53), Robbie Fowler (0.52) and, yes, Suárez (0.64).

More impressively still, Sturridge's tally puts him above Robin van Persie (0.68 goals per 90 minutes), Alan Shearer (0.61) and Ronaldo (0.52) when he was in the Premier League. In fact, Opta's stats show that only three players in Premier League history have scored at a better rate than Sturridge: Agüero (0.78 per 90), Thierry Henry (0.74) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (0.70).

In some ways it is understandable that Sturridge's ability was overlooked for so long. He is not a pricey foreign orchid or a delicate bud in the first stages of bloom. He is a 24-year-old from Birmingham, who flowered a little later than others. But the exciting thing for Liverpool and England is that Sturridge could yet get better.

Playing alongside Suárez undoubtedly helps: the Uruguayan not only leads the league in assists but he is a distraction and a tease: he attracts defenders' eyes that might otherwise be focused elsewhere. But Sturridge has scored when Suárez has been absent and when Liverpool have been more defensive.

Of course, he does not glitter in every game: he was unusually wasteful in the FA Cup fifth-round match against Arsenal, while during the 4-0 win against Everton Sturridge went for his hat-trick rather than play in Suárez, much to the Uruguayan's disgust. Yet there is scant evidence that Sturridge is greedy. This season his average shots per 90 minutes (4.03) is lower than Agüero, Messi, Suárez and Ibrahimovic, who all average between five and six shots per 90 minutes, and Ronaldo, who averages 7.88. And who can blame Sturridge for letting fly when his shot conversion rate – the number of shots resulting in a goal – is 30%, better than Agüero (25.9%), Messi (23.7%), Suárez (22.3%) and Ronaldo (17.6%).

Sturridge also does better than Messi, Ronaldo and co in another Opta stat: big chances converted – a measure of how successful a player is at converting one-on-ones or shots close to goal. In fact, wherever you look the data tells you the same thing: Sturridge is the real deal.

Brendan Rodgers has learned how to make best use of him. The question is whether Roy Hodgson can do so too. Certainly the idea of Sturridge leading the line, with Wayne Rooney behind him, supported by two free spirits out wide, makes you wonder whether England's Brazilian adventure might be less rickety than expected.

Sturridge's scoring run cannot go on forever, of course. He only has to look at his partner at Liverpool to realise that. But right now he is bubbling and the future seems effervescent with possibilities.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/feb/24/liverpool-daniel-sturridge-luis-suarez-england-world-cup?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Vermilion]

No 1 & 2 in europe for goals per mins!

[Daniel 7]

It also annoys me that the press now refer to him as "England international Daniel Sturridge" by default, whereas a year ago it was "difficult Chelsea squad player" (or words to those effect.)

[Rigadon]

His all-round play is excellent. Whenever he gets the ball in a wide position, he always looks as if he'll beat his man and provide a quality pass/cross (we've had wingers that couldn't do that - I won't name them him ).

One or two pundits (and fans) say he's gutsy - 'course he his, he's a striker that's full of confidence - 18 in 19 Prem games 22 in 26 games scored in each of our last 8 Prem games and still no song

[Fosterbloke]

And people wonder why we whinge about our defence so much. If we had a half decent one, we'd be pissing the league this season. Seriously.

[EwarWoo]

Way we're going we could have 4 or 5 players in the England team.

That's depressing, I'll have to start supporting England again Anyone have a lobotomy kit?

[Shaggy]

Sturridge has been getting the Dalglish "Clap, clap, clap clap clap, clap clap clap clap, STURRIDGE!" chant, which is a sort of honour in itself but I think he needs a proper song of his own.

[rodo]

Way we're going we could have 4 or 5 players in the England team.

That's depressing, I'll have to start supporting England again Anyone have a lobotomy kit?

that is even more of a reason to despise the england team and internationals as they end up injured