DANIEL STURRIDGE INTERVIEW: Torres told me Liverpool are the best club he's ever played for... I thought 'I need a bit of that'
PUBLISHED: 22:19 GMT, 21 March 2014 | UPDATED: 22:46 GMT, 21 March 2014
There will come a point today, as Liverpool’s team bus snakes through the streets of Cardiff, when Daniel Sturridge will zone out from those around him.
All conversation will stop, his phone will come out and Sturridge will devote all concentration to the small screen in front of him. If your instinct is to say this is a lack of manners, think again. It’s actually the start of an intricate pre-match routine, designed to bring him to fever pitch.
For on Sturridge’s phone is a compilation of the 28 goals he has scored in his 15 months as a Liverpool player. He analyses them relentlessly, imagining how the next header, volley or tap-in will look. Clearly the studying is paying off.
‘I watch the goals to get me in the mood and to give myself a vision of how I want the game to go,’ Sturridge explains, as he holds court in the media room at Liverpool’s Melwood training base. ‘I have got more clips as the season has gone on, but that’s good.
‘I will do the same routine against Cardiff. The clips now last around 15-20 minutes which is normally what the coach ride to a stadium takes, so it is perfect. I still get the same feeling every time I watch the video back.
‘After that in the changing room, I will be dancing and joking. A lot of players are straight-faced and serious, some are the opposite. It’s like that until about 10 minutes before kick-off and I am in the zone. Then there is no more joking about.’
This is a candid insight into the workings of a young man for whom the next few months will be momentous. As England’s main striker, expectation will grow the closer the World Cup comes into view but, before that, he could help his club achieve something remarkable.
Liverpool might be outsiders but there is no disputing they are in the thick of a pulsating title race and Sturridge has done as much as anyone to get them there. His fortunes have mirrored that of his team, on a constant upward spiral since the turn of last year.
If it was initially doubted whether Sturridge, who had been saddled with a reputation for being difficult, would be a good fit at Liverpool, it is now impossible to imagine Brendan Rodgers’s side operating without the 24-year-old.
Anfield’s stage suits him. Before he headed north, he spoke with a striker who knew what relentless goalscoring in a red shirt could do. Fernando Torres’s love affair with the Kop ended the day he joined Chelsea in 2011 for £50million but that did not stop him giving Sturridge some significant advice.
‘He always spoke very highly about Liverpool,’ says Sturridge. ‘When we were at Chelsea together he would say, “Liverpool are amazing”, and it wasn’t just him — it was Yossi Benayoun as well. They both said, “That club is the best I have played for”.
‘They said the fans will make you feel amazing and, at the time, I thought I need a bit of that in my life because I was low right then.
‘I need to feel good about myself, so it was an easy decision to come here. My dad (Michael), my uncle (Dean, the former Derby striker) and I all shared the same opinion: this was the best place to go. When Liverpool came in, it was one of those situations that I just wanted to get up the M6 as quick as possible, sign on the dotted line and get to work.
‘I was desperate to get here and show what I could do. I was hungry and I am still hungry. There is so much for us to achieve.’
What they might achieve in the next nine games, starting against Cardiff, has supporters daring to dream. Sturridge was only eight months old when Liverpool last ruled the land but this, perhaps, is their best chance since 1990 and if he and Luis Suarez keep scoring, anything is possible.
Between them they have plundered 43 goals in the Barclays Premier League but that has not stopped the perception that there is some friction between the pair, not least when Suarez has been caught on camera berating his partner for not passing.
‘Yeah well, I do the same to him!’ Sturridge responds. ‘Luis does have a go at players but that’s because he wants the best. I want the best, too, the same as Stevie (Gerrard). We all do. We are at a stage now where we have to push everyone to their maximum.
‘Some players respond to shouting, some don’t. Everyone is different and that is one of a manager’s strengths to understand that some don’t respond to that.
‘But I feel that as a team, if we push each other to our limits, we can achieve something.’
Having dubbed Gerrard ‘James Bond’ — Sturridge feels there is nothing Liverpool’s captain can’t do — and Philippe Coutinho ‘David Blaine’ as he is ‘a magician’, Sturridge is working on a nickname for Suarez but only once they have taken care of the serious business.
There are more goals to be scored and while Sturridge regards the glancing header that salvaged a 3-3 draw against Everton in November as his favourite so far, the best — and most important —may be yet to come.
‘At the beginning of the season the aim for everyone was to get into the Champions League,’ says Sturridge, who already has a title medal from his spell with Chelsea. ‘But as time has gone on and we have done well, now we’re getting towards the business end and we’re up there.
‘A lot of people’s perception is that maybe we can win the league. There are others in a better position so we just have to take each one as it comes and see where we end up. When I came here it was a dream, of course, to be involved in winning titles.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...l-best-club-hes-played-for.html#ixzz2wdmnKGmw
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
- Sturridge is the Premier League's leading English scorer with 18 goals
- England striker watches clips of his goals to fire him up before games
- Fernando Torres told him Liverpool was the best club he's ever played for
- Sturidge and strike partner Luis Suarez have scored 43 goals between them
- Sturridge's favourite goal was a glancing header in the Merseyside derby
- Liverpool travel to Cardiff four points behind league leaders Chelsea
PUBLISHED: 22:19 GMT, 21 March 2014 | UPDATED: 22:46 GMT, 21 March 2014
There will come a point today, as Liverpool’s team bus snakes through the streets of Cardiff, when Daniel Sturridge will zone out from those around him.
All conversation will stop, his phone will come out and Sturridge will devote all concentration to the small screen in front of him. If your instinct is to say this is a lack of manners, think again. It’s actually the start of an intricate pre-match routine, designed to bring him to fever pitch.
For on Sturridge’s phone is a compilation of the 28 goals he has scored in his 15 months as a Liverpool player. He analyses them relentlessly, imagining how the next header, volley or tap-in will look. Clearly the studying is paying off.
‘I watch the goals to get me in the mood and to give myself a vision of how I want the game to go,’ Sturridge explains, as he holds court in the media room at Liverpool’s Melwood training base. ‘I have got more clips as the season has gone on, but that’s good.
‘I will do the same routine against Cardiff. The clips now last around 15-20 minutes which is normally what the coach ride to a stadium takes, so it is perfect. I still get the same feeling every time I watch the video back.
‘After that in the changing room, I will be dancing and joking. A lot of players are straight-faced and serious, some are the opposite. It’s like that until about 10 minutes before kick-off and I am in the zone. Then there is no more joking about.’
This is a candid insight into the workings of a young man for whom the next few months will be momentous. As England’s main striker, expectation will grow the closer the World Cup comes into view but, before that, he could help his club achieve something remarkable.
Liverpool might be outsiders but there is no disputing they are in the thick of a pulsating title race and Sturridge has done as much as anyone to get them there. His fortunes have mirrored that of his team, on a constant upward spiral since the turn of last year.
If it was initially doubted whether Sturridge, who had been saddled with a reputation for being difficult, would be a good fit at Liverpool, it is now impossible to imagine Brendan Rodgers’s side operating without the 24-year-old.
Anfield’s stage suits him. Before he headed north, he spoke with a striker who knew what relentless goalscoring in a red shirt could do. Fernando Torres’s love affair with the Kop ended the day he joined Chelsea in 2011 for £50million but that did not stop him giving Sturridge some significant advice.
‘He always spoke very highly about Liverpool,’ says Sturridge. ‘When we were at Chelsea together he would say, “Liverpool are amazing”, and it wasn’t just him — it was Yossi Benayoun as well. They both said, “That club is the best I have played for”.
‘They said the fans will make you feel amazing and, at the time, I thought I need a bit of that in my life because I was low right then.
‘I need to feel good about myself, so it was an easy decision to come here. My dad (Michael), my uncle (Dean, the former Derby striker) and I all shared the same opinion: this was the best place to go. When Liverpool came in, it was one of those situations that I just wanted to get up the M6 as quick as possible, sign on the dotted line and get to work.
‘I was desperate to get here and show what I could do. I was hungry and I am still hungry. There is so much for us to achieve.’
What they might achieve in the next nine games, starting against Cardiff, has supporters daring to dream. Sturridge was only eight months old when Liverpool last ruled the land but this, perhaps, is their best chance since 1990 and if he and Luis Suarez keep scoring, anything is possible.
Between them they have plundered 43 goals in the Barclays Premier League but that has not stopped the perception that there is some friction between the pair, not least when Suarez has been caught on camera berating his partner for not passing.
‘Yeah well, I do the same to him!’ Sturridge responds. ‘Luis does have a go at players but that’s because he wants the best. I want the best, too, the same as Stevie (Gerrard). We all do. We are at a stage now where we have to push everyone to their maximum.
‘Some players respond to shouting, some don’t. Everyone is different and that is one of a manager’s strengths to understand that some don’t respond to that.
‘But I feel that as a team, if we push each other to our limits, we can achieve something.’
Having dubbed Gerrard ‘James Bond’ — Sturridge feels there is nothing Liverpool’s captain can’t do — and Philippe Coutinho ‘David Blaine’ as he is ‘a magician’, Sturridge is working on a nickname for Suarez but only once they have taken care of the serious business.
There are more goals to be scored and while Sturridge regards the glancing header that salvaged a 3-3 draw against Everton in November as his favourite so far, the best — and most important —may be yet to come.
‘At the beginning of the season the aim for everyone was to get into the Champions League,’ says Sturridge, who already has a title medal from his spell with Chelsea. ‘But as time has gone on and we have done well, now we’re getting towards the business end and we’re up there.
‘A lot of people’s perception is that maybe we can win the league. There are others in a better position so we just have to take each one as it comes and see where we end up. When I came here it was a dream, of course, to be involved in winning titles.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...l-best-club-hes-played-for.html#ixzz2wdmnKGmw
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
