Daniel Sturridge

[Assassin]

Needs to open his ears and be aware that there are 10 team mates on the pitch....

Obviously Rodgers has given him a right talking too. I dreamt he scored a hat trick against Citeh due to some superb passing moves

[G]

Quick everybody, stick money on another est'ers dream becoming reality!

[Muddled]

He's trying too hard to be the goalscorer we've been crying out for all season and he's being too selfish as a result. Over thinking things and over doing things. Rustiness I hope.

He's always been on the greedy side - not a bad thing as a striker - and it usually pays off so we tend not to mention it. But I agree mate, I think tonight was a combination of being rusty and trying too hard.

He seems to have come back with a point to prove, bit of an attitude on the pitch and trying really hard to do everything himself, he's a always been a little bit selfish but he's been doing it a lot more recently.

Hopefully it's just a little bit of rustiness and eagerness to impress and he soon settles back down again.

I don't think the state of the pitch helped. I was screaming for some chances to be hit first time, but I suppose if you're desperate to score, you want to know you're in full control of where the ball is. It just didn't seem to settle.

[Lee]

Yeah that pitch was terrible.

At one point in the first half Can pinged the ball to Ibe with a little bit too much on it so the ball should've ran out for a throw-in or goal kick. But it stopped near the corner flag.

[Pablo]

His attitude stinks at the moment. He's playing for himself and not for the team. You know you're greedy when you manage to make even Mario look selfless. Someone needs to snap him out of it.

Ridiculous decision not to sub him early last night too

[Assassin]

He is trying to be something he isnt. He will never be a Suarez.

He needs to get back to the basics. Making the runs, passing the ball and scoring. Not. ****ing. Hogging. The. Ball. Until. He. Loses. It

[frank the tank]

big time agree with the sentiment on here.

People talked about Rodgers not knowing how to set a team up in europe. For me, his tactics were okay last night (maybe not his in-game tactical decisions) but you expect a team that has Sterling, Sturridge and Balotelli (and Ibe on the right hand side as well) to score at least one goal. That's all we needed...... Sturridge or Sterling should have scored at least a goal....

[Shaggy]

Liverpool FC striker Daniel Sturridge is almost back to his best, says Brendan Rodgers

22:34, 2 March 2015 By James Pearce

Reds boss has had to manage Sturridge's game time carefully since he returned to action in late January

Brendan Rodgers believes Daniel Sturridge is close to firing on all cylinders as he backed the Liverpool FC striker to “light up” the run-in this season.

The Reds boss has had to manage Sturridge's game time carefully since he returned to action in late January after five months out with calf and thigh injuries.

Sturridge, who has scored twice in nine appearances since making his comeback, hasn't started either of Liverpool's last two Premier League matches with Rodgers preferring to use Raheem Sterling as a central striker.

However, Rodgers says Sturridge, who came off the bench late on in Sunday's 2-1 win over Manchester City, will soon regain his role as the focal point of the Reds' attack and he expects him to flourish in their 3-4-2-1 formation.

“Daniel is not fully fit yet and it is difficult for him because these are not training games for him to get fit,” Rodgers said.

“He's excited by the new system. Put a fully fit Daniel Sturridge into that system and it lights it up again.

“Come the end of this week Daniel be on a great run and able to play every game and be able to train.

“He wasn’t quite ready for the Premier League so then we were trying to fit him in in games.

"The Europa League was a great chance to get some game time into him, but after five months out and with his history here that was something we had to think of.

“The last thing we wanted to do was break him. He felt good on Sunday on the back of playing Thursday. He’s very determined to play and when you see a fully fit Daniel, he will be brilliant.”

One Liverpool player who is operating at the peak of his powers ahead of Wednesday night's home clash with Burnley is Philippe Coutinho.

The little Brazilian playmaker has netted three stunning long-range strikes in his past seven matches since penning a new contract to keep him at Anfield until 2020.

Rodgers believes Coutinho feels happy and settled and that has helped his form to blossom.

“We wanted to secure him here and reward him for what he’s done,” he said.

“Certainly there will be a psychological impact on that where he feels this is the place where he’s going to spend the best part of his career and want to be here. That can have a settling effect.

“Before he did sign we spoke about what he needs to do to go to the next level and about scoring goals more regularly because if he can add goals consistently to the talent he’ll be right up there as a world class player.”

Coutinho cost Liverpool just £8.5million when they bought him from Inter Milan in January 2013.

It has proved to be a wise investment with the 22-year-old fast becoming one of the Premier League's hottest properties.

Inter must be cursing the fact they allowed Coutinho to slip from their grasp for such a modest fee.

“I wasn’t so involved in the discussions with them but I’m led to believe there was a financial implication for them in that they had to move some players and of course in Italy there’s not so many young players who get the opportunity,” Rodgers said.

“I’d seen him play with Eto’o and Sneijder in big games and he was just the type of player I love.

“He has a beautiful arrogance on the ball, his touch is magical but he’s effective and efficient with it and playing here at Liverpool, with the dynamics of how we want to work, is perfect for him.

“How much is he worth now? I wouldn’t know. But you can certainly multiply what we paid a number of times though.

“What he gives to the team, he offers that gold dust to how we play. He’s a wonderful player, and a wonderful wee boy too.

“If you see his videos on YouTube playing futsal when he was 11 or 12 in Brazil, he’s playing the same game now only as an adult.

“We knew he had wonderful ability, it was just about trusting that wonderful ability and allowing it to grow, to blossom, to flower into the beautiful fully-formed plant you are now seeing. It's wonderful.”

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-striker-daniel-sturridge-8756110

[Frenchie]

....

[baitman]

all sounds legit.

[Gray]

[danperkins]

I was waiting for .... He's a wonderful technician & a wonderful person (it can still be added in ). I love our Brendan but he does talk some ****e

[kev776]

...

[McDermotX]

Great goal

[Vermilion]

Fookin hell that goal was a beauty!

All the attention has been on Hendo scoring piledrivers, but that header by Sturridge was top draw, a real top strikers goal.

Magical, loved it.

Looking more and more like the pre-injury Sturridge with each game.