Daniel Sturridge Must Begin to Show He Can Be More Than Just a Goalscorer

Daniel Sturridge is a brilliant finisher. His goal in the Europa League final—shaping a shot into the corner with the outside of his left foot—was stunning, the product of supreme technique and a tremendously inventive mind.

His goal for England against Wales at Euro 2016 was almost as impressive, as he found an unexpected route to goal in a crowded box. It may not have been the most aesthetically pleasing strike given the way it bounced in off the goalkeeper’s shin, but that’s not the point: set a complex problem at a crucial stage of the game, he found an effective solution.

Those are not skills to be written off lightly: That’s the sort of incisiveness that can break a deadlocked game. But Sturridge is finding that the capacity to score goals isn’t quite enough for a modern centre-forward.

Liverpool’s 0-0 draw against Manchester United perhaps wasn’t the best night on which to judge Sturridge. He got to start in a big game and in his preferred position as a central striker, it’s true, but the Red Devils went to Anfield intent on keeping their shape and denying Liverpool anything.

The two centre-backs remained deep, and so, too, did the two central midfielders. Sturridge was effectively playing constantly in a box of four United players. Even more frustratingly for him, not a single ball was played by David De Gea to either central defender, so concerned was Red Devils manager Jose Mourinho by the prospect of Liverpool’s press.

That not only helped stifle any flow of chances for Sturridge, it also meant he couldn’t show that he is capable of leading the press—there wasn’t anything in his zone to press.

Still, if Sturridge shouldn’t be written off on the basis of what happened on Monday, he didn't make much of a case for himself, either. He managed no shots, no key passes, no tackles, no interceptions and won no aerial duels. He touched the ball only 22 times, per WhoScored.com, and there’s little doubt that Liverpool looked more threatening once Roberto Firmino had moved to centre-forward.

Then again, United tired noticeably late on, and it may have been that as they dropped deeper, Sturridge would have been able to exploit their weariness had he been the one coming fresh off the bench.

Reds manager Jurgen Klopp seemed sympathetic to Sturridge, something that hasn’t always been true. “It was a really difficult game for a striker, the way we played it wasn’t easy to enjoy for a striker,” he said after the game, per the Liverpool Echo.

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But it can hardly be denied that Sturridge has become a problem. He hasn’t scored in 615 minutes in the Premier League. Liverpool’s three poorest performances of the season—the 2-0 defeat at Burnley, the 2-1 win at Swansea and on Monday—have come in three of the four games when he’s started.

Whatever the mitigating circumstances against United, his problems followed a pattern.

A straight comparison with Firmino exposes the issue. This season, the Brazilian averages 0.4 goals per 90 minutes played in the league, Sturridge has zero. He has registered no assists.

Firmino has made three tackles per 90 minutes to Sturridge’s 0.8. The South American has made 1.7 tackles per 90 minutes to nine from the former Chelsea man and 0.9 interceptions to 0.3.

It’s a limited sample size, and it may be that the causation is the other way round—that Sturridge hasn’t been especially effective because the team has played poorly rather than necessarily being the cause of the dip in performance.

However, there’s enough there to raise concerns. Particularly in a system like Klopp’s—which demands the team is united to be working as one to impose a press high up the pitch—that lack of effectiveness in winning the ball back is deeply concerning.

But it’s not just for Liverpool. Sturridge was awful—in a generally awful performance—for England against Slovenia, the lowlight being a strange half-hit shot when a pull-back would have given Wayne Rooney a tap-in.

On the ITV coverage, Ryan Giggs recalled playing with him for the Team GB Olympic squad in 2012. He had great touch, speed and awareness, the former Wales international said, but lacked the capacity to make good decisions in the final third.

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It’s not to doubt the truth of that assessment to say it’s baffling. Sturridge clearly does make poor decisions. There are times when he is recklessly selfish. And yet his is a brain that can envisage the sort of goal he scored against Sevilla or Wales.

His perception of where the goal is and the possibilities of finding it are acute, but his understanding of where his team-mates are often seems less well-developed. Perhaps perception and understanding are not the same thing, but the hope would always be that experience would bring the latter to those blessed with the former.

Sturridge is 27. It may be that the injuries he has suffered have slowed his development—he has made only 106 league starts in his career—but if it doesn’t come soon, it may never come.

He’s one of a crop of English players cursed by potential, always about to make the next step up without ever quite doing it. It’s probably no coincidence that Sturridge’s best season came when he had Luis Suarez guiding him.

He’s a hugely gifted centre-forward. In a past age, if he could have stayed fit, he could probably have been a regular 20-goals-a-season man. At a mid-ranking Premier League club, where he was the sole focus of the attack, he probably still could be.

However, for all his talent, for all his pace, the quickness of his feet and the excellence of his finishing, there is something lacking. He moved on from Manchester City because of a lack of first-team opportunities. He left Chelsea for similar reasons.

If he can’t find a way to make it work at Liverpool, how long before people begin to draw the conclusion that the problem isn’t the clubs but him?

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It would be a terrible shame. In the most vital facet of football—putting the ball in the back of the net—he is superb. The problem is that in the modern game, at the highest level, that may not be quite enough.