Liverpool: How the Reds Will Cope with Daniel Sturridge's Injury

The international break may now be over—with eyes firmly cast upon the return of Premier League action—but, sadly, the fall-out continues.

The highest profile case of the perpetual international/club-game tussle now revolves around Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge; injured for the third time on international duty in less than 18 months last Friday, the Reds look set to be deprived of their star striker—without whom one-third of their matches ended in defeat last season—for up to three weeks.

The general and rather blunt message from Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, per The Telegraph, is that "it was an injury which could have been prevented" had England's manager Roy Hodgson adopted the player’s tailored training programme from club level, where he is given a second day of rest after match-days.

It is clearly a dispute which stems back from November 2013, when Hodgson, according to an ESPN article, admitted playing Sturridge through injury to "test his resolve" in a friendly loss to Germany, with the forward missing eight consecutive league games shortly after during a frantic festive period.

The first of those missing games corresponded with arguably Liverpool’s worst result—and performance—of the entire campaign in a 3-1 defeat at Hull City, with Luis Suarez swarmed by an aggressive back three and surrounded by a lack of attacking quality.

The Uruguayan may have produced his most productive spell of the season, scoring an astonishing eleven goals in five victories, but the club suffered two more losses at title rivals Manchester City and Chelsea in late December 2013.

It would be daring to directly correlate the three December defeats to Sturridge’s absence, but the fact remains that three of the side’s six league losses during 2013/14 occurred without him in the side.

Moreover, the fatal home loss to Chelsea in April saw the forward arrive as a 57th minute substitute after he had been rushed back from injury in pursuit of an equaliser.

With or without merit, then, Rodgers’ criticism of Hodgson and England will have been largely motivated by a desire to avoid a similarly lengthy blow—ill-affordable if Liverpool are to go one better than last season's second-placed finish—to his chief goal-getter.

That scenario looks to have been narrowly avoided for now. Sturridge could well return for the Merseyside derby at the end of September having missed only two league games at home against Aston Villa and away to West Ham, while home ties versus Ludogorets and Middlesbrough in the Champions League and League Cup respectively would have presented palatable opportunities to rest the 25-year-old regardless.

That may not have even been an option last campaign. Indeed, following the aforementioned defeat at Hull, Rodgers admitted in his press conference, as per the BBC, "The quality of our squad is not big enough to cope with big players missing. It is a bad period of time to lose him for."

There have been no such remarks on either front this week; while the Northern Irishman would clearly rather have a top-class talent like Sturridge at his disposal at all times, it is certainly not the worst time to be forced into formulating a plan without him, particularly with nine summer additions to bed in.

Moreover, it is not the first time he has missed games through injury, and it will surely not be the last.

In Mario Balotelli, Liverpool have a striker different enough to Sturridge to play alongside him as evident in the 3-0 win at White Hart Lane, but crucially one who can also stretch teams through similarly clever movement and searing pace, which was so sorely missed in the Englishman’s absence last campaign.

Raheem Sterling, too, can now provide this, albeit largely from different areas of the pitch. 

Whether Rodgers will choose to use the Italian alone in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, or partner him with a forward in the diamond formation that Liverpool remain unbeaten with since its introduction—coincidentally not too long after Saturday’s opponents, Aston Villa, expertly utilised it in the 2-2 draw at Anfield in January—remains to be seen.

The key is that the 41-year-old now has multiple options for the first time in his Anfield career, giving more scope in coping with injuries, and changing tactics or personnel from the bench.

That said, it is extremely difficult to replace a player who scored at least one goal in exactly half of Liverpool’s league matches last campaign; especially when those goals were as important as the tweet from OptaJoe below highlights:

However, the club are in a better position to do so than perhaps ever before, which is in stark contrast to last campaign, as summarised by Kristian Walsh for the Liverpool Echo today, in regards to the widely-taunted title decider against Manchester City in April:

"

The biggest game at Anfield in 25 years also highlighted how sparse Rodgers' options were in the dugout ... In midfield, Lucas and Allen were both players associated more with their defensive work than attacking use ... At this point, Allen had never scored for Liverpool; Lucas had not scored since 2010.

Aspas had scored—at home to Oldham in the FA Cup—but Rodgers did not regard him as a reliable asset from the bench; Moses, meanwhile, had not started a league game since the December defeat to Hull.

"

Barring any additional injuries, Liverpool’s bench this Saturday will likely include two £20 million-plus signings in Lazar Markovic and Adam Lallana. While both are yet to prove themselves at the very highest level, it certainly makes a mockery of having to turn to Moses or Luis Alberto.

Rickie Lambert, meanwhile, coming off the back of 28 goals in two Premier League seasons for Southampton, is a bona fide upgrade on Aspas as third-choice centre-forward.

There’s even Fabio Borini, although it looks as though it would take more than one attacking injury to force his way into the manager’s plans after the forward’s refusal to leave the club.

But perhaps Liverpool’s best option in Sturridge’s absence is to experiment with the in-form teenage prodigy Sterling as a withdrawn forward, allowing the introduction of an attacking midfielder such as Philippe Coutinho or Lallana to thrive behind him and Balotelli.

Ultimately, however, as Rodgers is always keen to stress, it is not about any individual, but about the collective; last campaign, the whole was often greater than the sum of its parts but, following the astute business conducted in the summer, that need not be the case any longer. Even without a player as good as Daniel Sturridge.