While Luis Suarez offered his services to other clubs this summer like a promiscuous adolescent under strobe lights and a large disco ball, his teammate Daniel Sturridge, largely unnoticed, was improving rapidly behind the scenes.
His match-winning strike against Aston Villa a fitting demonstration of his development.
As Sturridge danced through the Aston Villa penalty area on his way to goal, you got the impression you were watching a player whose excellent goal scoring run is unlikely to labor, who is ready to assume an elite standing in the game for both club and country.
Goals of that nature – intricate, but made to look as simple as shilling peas – are simply not scored by players bereft of confidence or lacking ability. It was a piece of play that was the signature of a technically gifted athlete ready to flex his proverbial muscles.
Sturridge may not grab the limelight in the same way his Uruguayan teammate Luis Suarez does off the field, but on it his figures since joining Brendan Rodgers’s men from Chelsea, are hard to ignore.
In a Liverpool shirt, the Birmingham-born forward has scored 13 Premier League goals from 17 appearances. Figures that mean he currently boasts a superior strike rate to that of last season’s top scorer: Robin Van Persie.
Form of this nature has been a long time coming for Sturridge. Yet the reason it has taken his star so long to shine is not down to a famine of self-assurance, nor has he appeared to be burdened by weight of expectation. It’s been a lack of recognition that had seen his career stall.
At Liverpool he is being duly awarded the opportunities he simply wasn’t given at his previous clubs: Manchester City and Chelsea.
Throughout his time at Stamford Bridge in particular, Sturridge was considered a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. He was starved of opportunities. When he did play, it was usually out of position – manning a wing or playing too deep.
Bolton saw his potential back in 2012 and the Birmingham born forward was recruited on loan in the hope that he would rescue their Premier league campaign. While the Trotters ultimately succumbed to relegation, Sturridge contributed eight Premier League goals from 12 matches playing primarily as the centre-forward. His loan spell turned out to be an audition of sorts.
Soon after his loan expired, Sturridge signaled his intention to make a similar career move to that of Thierry Henry back in his Arsenal days – a transition that saw the Frenchman evolve from fleet-footed winger to world-class striker.
Sturridge’s productivity in front of goal at the Reebok stadium was supposed to coax then Chelsea manager Roberto Di Matteo into gifting him more chances as the principal target-man. It did not eventuate.
At 23, his potential stagnating and his career slowly but surely decomposing, Sturridge needed to push a move through to greener pastures where he would be both valued and tried in his favored position.
Cue a £12 million move to Merseyside. Liverpool were lacking depth up-front and required a player apt at playing anywhere across the front three – Sturridge obliged and has not looked back since.
From the time he arrived in England’s North-West he has relished a role operating both in front of and around Suarez where his ability to convert chances can be aptly exploited.
But, this season in particular Sturridge has taken the largest strides of his career thus far. In the Uruguyan’s absence he has been promoted to Liverpool’s main striker.
With Suarez serving a lengthy ban, Sturridge has welcomed the responsibility of being Liverpool’s primary target-man warmly, especially given his lack of opportunities in the past. And with three spectacular finishes arriving in his first three games for the Anfield club already this season, it is an indication that he has taken his chances accordingly.
Added exposure has seen elements of his game unbeknownst to many previously, now coming to the fore. Always recognized as agile and quick, Sturridge has also shown an added strength and ability to hold the play up: hallmarks of a successful center-forward and attributes he was deemed to have lacked by many at his previous clubs.
Now noticeably equipped with the conventional métier of a striker coupled with the quick-footed dexterity of a wide-player his stock has risen both internally and externally. He is subsequently viewed in an entirely different light by both opposition defenders and his team mates.
When his influence was at one stage over overlooked by opposition defenders in favor of more dangerous teammates, it is now scrutinized to the nth–degree. Once a provider of chances and a foil for his team’s marksmen, Sturridge is now the diminutive poacher who demands his own precise service.
While Sturridge is far from being considered a world-beater at this stage of his career, he has shown a decisiveness and reliability for an extended period of time now that suggests he is well on his way to fulfilling his lofty potential.
Now that he has recognition, Sturridge must continue to deliver so that he reaches the lofty heights long expected of him.
If or when he does, he will look back fondly on a positional move that projected him to great heights.
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