It feels like a lifetime since the Kop had its very own predator; someone who could just pull on that red shirt and annihilate the opposition defence week in-week out, in front of the Anfield faithful.
Since the departure of Fernando Torres, Liverpool have lacked a goal scoring presence in the side, with Torres bringing them ever so close to the 19th league title, not so long ago. The £35m signing of Andy Carroll was supposed to be the answer to Liverpool’s goal scoring problems, with the lack of a poacher never being more evident than last season, when the Reds failed to find the back of the net on a regular basis – a problem which left them languishing at a lowly 8th place in the league table, below cross-town rivals Everton.
Luis Suarez, the man from Ajax, was brought in with great hope that he would catapult Liverpool back into the Champions league. Expectations were sky-high after some splendid performances from Suarez in the Dutch league including a stellar season, which saw the Uruguayan amass almost half a century of goals.
Although it would be a crime to suggest that Suarez failed to live up to the expectations, it was clear that he was never going to be the player who could sniff the goal. Two years on, every Liverpool fan would agree that Suarez made a glorious start to life at Liverpool with some stunning performances, most of which leading towards Liverpool scoring goals than him scoring them. Suarez’s individual bravura is beyond doubt; however, it is much suggested that he would be more effective playing off a poacher.
A calamitous league campaign meant that the players and the manager were always going to come under a canopy of pressure, from the media as well as the fans. Despite having won the Carling cup and reaching the finals of the FA Cup, the sacking of Liverpool legend, Kenny Dalglish and the appointment of former Swansea manager, Brendan Rodgers inevitably followed.While everyone pondered about how delightful Liverpool would look like when they played Tiki-Taka, everyone seemed to have overlooked the cardinal problems that needed to be addressed. While it would be unfair to claim that the club did not try, the deadline day debacle involving Dempsey and Carroll meant that the club had failed to solve their goal scoring problems.
With Suarez as one of few front men in the side, Rodgers set upon his journey of taking the five times European champions back to where they belong, the Champions League. Luckily for Rodgers and Liverpool, their talisman striker Suarez looked a lot more clinical with his finishing and has already scored a bag full of goals for the Reds so far. But the lack of goal scoring players around Suarez is still proving to be a major concern for the Reds in achieving their objectives for the season. New forward signing Fabio Borini, prior to his long injury spell, failed to make any instant impact, which the manager and the fans would have hoped for.
But with the signing of Daniel Sturridge, on the 2nd of January 2013. But the question is, how good has he been since swapping the Blue of the Bridge for the Red of the Mersey? The former Chelsea forward, often branded as a player who failed to achieve his potential, has been nothing short of a revelation ever since he walked out of the tunnel at Mansfield’s One call stadium. The Birmingham born forward looked a completely different player to the one that played for Chelsea. With his first touch of the ball in a Liverpool shirt, Sturridge made one thing perfectly clear, he was a team player; a player who has so often been criticized for his selfish style of play and lack of composure has been showing extremes of both in a red shirt.
A goal on his debut, followed by a goal scoring cameo at Old Trafford meant that Sturridge was on the right track to silencing his critics and proving the Liverpool fans that he was no failed prodigy. The goal Sturridge scored against the league leaders was a perfect emulation of Liverpool’s shortcomings. Time and again the team has been in a situation where Liverpool have lacked a presence in the box, someone who could make the most of the keeper’s mistakes. And this was a problem the manager had identified. A difference needed to be made; step up Daniel Sturridge, the former Chelsea man took up his usual poacher-esque position in a similar situation against United and slotted home capitalising on De Gea’s failure to hold on to the ball after having pulled off a decent save.
It was dramatic – Sturridge had scored on his league debut, Liverpool were back into the game, the red flares from the away end and the instinctive five-finger celebration (You thought I’d forget it, didn’t you?).
A striker was signed, he made an impact, he scored the goals – but wait, wasn’t that the reason he was signed for, in the first place? So why the fuss? Here, the next part will tell you why I wrote this article.
Sturridge was brought in as a goal scorer, someone who would take up dangerous positions in and around the box and score goals. However, what arrived was a complete forward who could hold the ball up and bring others into the play, create space with his off the ball movements, link up beautifully with his teammates, show tremendous work ethic and, of course, score them goals.
Sturridge’s cameo against Manchester United saw him lining up on the pitch alongside Suarez for the first time and, for everyone else watching, it was a period that would foretell how well they would play together. Quick one-twos and delightful link up play between the two forwards gave the team and the fans something to be positive about despite losing the match. On the back of that performance, Sturridge made his first league start against Norwich where his understanding with Luis Suarez was demonstrated yet again, to devastating effect. The former Chelsea man set up a goal for his new strike partner with an immaculate dummy that took two Norwich defenders out of the game and sent Suarez clean through with only the ‘keeper to beat.
Having set up a goal for Suarez, Sturridge got his third goal in his third game (equalling Ray Kennedy’s record) when he arrived at the far post to tap in Downing’s fantastic ball across the face of goal (once again, Liverpool lacked these goals). Games against Arsenal and City followed, Sturridge made an impact in both games and came away with a goal against the champions on his return to Etihad. With his delightful performances Sturridge had more than just shared the goalscoring burden with Suarez, he negated the dependency factor. With some suggesting that the display against City was the best Sturridge had ever played in his career, to most Liverpool fans it is hopefully a start of something special.
Although he is a ‘tall British striker’, with no blonde hair, and he doesn’t even wear that number 9 shirt, I wait in hope, for the day, when I can say – ‘we signed this boy from Chelsea, and the rest is history….’
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