England v Germany: Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge seizes his big chance to shine
For so long a squad player with Manchester City and Chelsea, the England striker tells Sam Wallace how moving to Anfield has given him the confidence to close in on a World Cup place
SAM WALLACE
Monday 18 November 2013
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It has been a long time coming but Daniel Sturridge, the child prodigy who played for England at every junior level, can at last say that he has reached a point in his career where he is the senior team’s centre-forward of choice and the Premier League’s in-form striker. Not that he is taking anything for granted.
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It is more than four years since he arrived at Chelsea as a teenager pledging to succeed Didier Drogba and unfazed by the gentle suggestion that it might not be that easy. Now 24, and in his second season at Liverpool, Sturridge has scored 21 goals in 29 games for his club. He will start against Germany at Wembley tomorrow night in tandem with Wayne Rooney – currently the partnership that Roy Hodgson would like to start with in Brazil next summer.
The only concern is his fitness, which he admitted at the team hotel yesterday is still not a certainty with the Merseyside derby looming on Saturday. “This thigh injury has been lingering for a while and it’s still frustrating me but I’m going to put the shirt on and try and perform as best as I can,” he said. “I keep getting these niggling injuries because I’ve not had a pre-season.
“I was disappointed not to be involved in the last game [Chile], it was a big opportunity for me. I got injured in the Ireland game [in May] and I’ve been getting little thigh injuries every now and again. So it’s about trying to get over them and get a regular run of games so that I’m not playing with little niggling things.”
He could laugh about the certainties he expressed on joining Chelsea from Manchester City, which followed him through the frustrating times at that club. It did not help that they spent £50m on Fernando Torres midway through Sturridge’s Chelsea career. “Maybe my press conference put me on the back foot a little bit in the way how people perceived me,” he said. “I have always been confident in my abilities, always had my faith in God, always expressed myself; when you are a young player sometimes you get misunderstood.
“People were thinking ‘He is saying this and he has not proved himself or not done anything to back up what he’s said’. In the past I have maybe not been given the opportunity to back up what I have said. I am now being given the opportunity.
“When you get an opportunity to back up what you say, it’s easier to do that. If you are unable to show what you can do, having made statements, then you are waiting to show what you can do. If you have only 20 minutes, you can’t show what you can do.”
Opportunity. It is what all bright young English footballers crave and what an ever-diminishing number of them are being granted in a Premier League that can sign most of the best talent in the world. The Germany team that England face tomorrow will feature many of the new generation – Toni Kroos, Marco Reus, Mario Götze – who have benefited from the kind of faith from managers that Brendan Rodgers has shown in Sturridge.
“It has not been a case of frustration but I am happy to be given the opportunity,” Sturridge said. “I am delighted that I have the belief of the England manager, of my manager at Liverpool and I’m thankful for my time at Chelsea and Man City. I will never forget that. That for me was a defining moment in my career, being at Chelsea, going through what has made me become a man in terms of my footballing career.”
His confidence is high, as demonstrated by the audacious chip he scored against West Bromwich Albion last month. It was a skill he learned, he said, from Deco, with whom he played during his time at Chelsea.
“In the past I have felt I didn’t want to try something in case I get shot down for it. When I was playing for England, in maybe the first or second game I tried it and the keeper saved it. The game after that I tried it and it came off. I just think sometimes you have to play with risks. Try to enjoy yourself and express yourself on the field.
“I maybe stopped doing it when I got into the first team but now I am more comfortable and I am playing my natural game and doing things off the cuff. The chip, I just looked up and saw him [goalkeeper Boaz Myhill] and thought ‘I’m going for it’. Maybe in the past I wouldn’t have gone for that. But when you feel more comfortable and confident you do try things you maybe wouldn’t have done.”
The concern with Sturridge is, as ever, his fitness and whether he can last the whole season. It is evidently on his mind not least because, as he mentioned again yesterday, he missed pre-season at Liverpool with the injury picked up against Ireland.
“It was really terrible for me personally because I had worked so hard to get into the set-up and I was on holiday on crutches. I didn’t go to Thailand on pre-season tour.
“I was working with the physio and with fitness coach on the training ground. I didn’t get to do much work because Luis [Suarez] was suspended and I really wanted to make sure I was right. I scored in the first game of the season, but it was such a difficult time to have an injury in the summer. Lots of players have done it and come through a lot worse.”
These days, he has made such a name for himself that people are calling him “Dean” less often, the uncle with whom he was occasionally confused by commentators. He comes from an accomplished football family. Another uncle, Simon, played at Stoke City among others and his father Michael was a professional in Finland who, according to his son, still has all his best goals “on Betamax videos”.
It is all there for a player who has waited longer than most expected – himself included – to establish himself in the Premier League, and how he fares on the occasion of his ninth cap for England tomorrow will tell much about how far he has come.
