major boost for Liverpool this season, former defender
Mark Lawrenson feels.
Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson has underlined the
importance of Daniel Sturridge to the club after the striker's
double helped his team to a 3-2 win over Aston Villa at the
weekend.
The 26-year-old spent the majority of the 2014-15 campaign on
the sidelines due to injury and also missed the opening weeks of
this season.
He made his comeback in the 1-1 draw with Norwich City last
week, though, before opening his account for the season versus
Villa and Lawrenson believes his return will prove to be a major
boost.
"That’s what you get from Daniel Sturridge. That’s why he has
been such a big miss for Liverpool this season and last,"
Lawrenson wrote in his column for The Liverpool Echo.
"And that’s why, when he was knocking them in along with Luis
Suarez, we nearly won the Premier League.
"I can guarantee Sturridge will have been second-guessing
himself when he stepped on to the field against Aston Villa. He'll
have been asking himself whether he can still do it. Whether his
fitness could hold up, having not long been working again the
main group, as Brendan Rodgers likes to call it.
"Two goals later – and brilliantly taken they were too – and
Sturridge will be flying. Confidence is always a big thing in
football. But I would say that for Sturridge, it’s a massive,
massive part of his game. You get the feeling that to get the
best from the striker, he has to be 100 per cent right in both
body and mind.
"Everybody recognises Sturridge is a great talent, it’s just
keeping him on the pitch that has been the issue. And that will,
you suspect, always remain the case."
Rodgers' position at the helm had come under the spotlight after
a four-game winless run in the Premier League, while Liverpool
were also taken to penalties by Carlisle United in the League
Cup.
But the win at the weekend lifted Liverpool into the top half and
eased some of the pressure on Rodgers.
No comments:
Post a Comment