Breaking Down Liverpool Striker Daniel Sturridge's Best Qualities

By the end of next season Liverpool will have been without Champions League football for four-and-a-half years. It’ll be longer if they finish out of the top four again.

It is, if nothing else, a time to be brave, and in their newest centre-forward the Reds certainly have a player whose bravery stands out amongst his other qualities.

Daniel Sturridge has had an excellent start to life at Anfield.

He scored 11 goals in his first 16 games for the club since signing from Chelsea in January, and with the Reds indicating that they hope the injury the forward picked up England’s recent friendly draw with the Republic of Ireland isn’t serious enough to keep him out of the start of next season, then he’ll be looking for a similarly impressive 2013/14.

With the question marks surrounding the future of Luis Suarez growing bigger and bigger with every passing day, week and transfer rumour, it might become even more important that Sturridge continues his rapid development at a rate of knots. He could soon find himself thrust into life as Liverpool’s premier striker.

Yet as a confident player he’s sure to relish that.

Such self-belief can often be misconstrued as arrogance, but Sturridge’s mentality and mindset were certainly welcomed to the Reds when he joined earlier this year.

Whilst the benefit to the club as a whole was tangible―the Reds noticeably picked up both their form in front of goal and their Premier League points tally after January―Sturridge’s confidence also seemed to infect some of his teammates.

He could be written off as too greedy and too single-minded during his time at Chelsea, but that time was so often littered with late substitute appearances as an understudy for the likes of Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres.

Sturridge knew that if he didn’t impress in that short, sharp burst into the action then he would most likely be back on the bench the following week.

At Liverpool, given the confidence of Brendan Rodgers and the knowledge that he’ll be in the team whatever happens, that confidence can blossom and help an already rapidly developing player.

The forward has apparently been making an effort to clear what was a previously cluttered mind judging by this article in the Liverpool Echo, and that desire to improve himself whilst simultaneously proving a few others wrong―he was noticeably “angry” when coming off the bench against former club Chelsea in April, via LiverpoolFC.com―could be a perfect combination for Liverpool.

He’s still likely to attract criticism from those who love nothing better than to find faults in English players, but Sturridge’s strength can be his strength. The mental side of his game which appears to be dragging the physical one up with it.

Liverpool’s current status as European football also-rans rather than stars means that they’ve had to take gambles on talented but not quite proven players such as Sturridge over recent years, but the key difference with this one is that the forward already has the self-belief required to succeed at a big club.

He might see this as his own chance to shine, and whilst that could certainly be regarded as a selfish attitude the five Premier League assists he picked up for the Reds last season suggest that he’s becoming more and more of a team player.

Not that Liverpool should seek to completely remove that ruthless streak, though.

That is just another aspect of Sturridge’s bravery, and one that makes the possibility of him becoming a success at Anfield an even stronger one.