The player has been impressive in the pre-season matches
Daniel Sturridge joined Liverpool from Chelsea for an undisclosed fee thought to be in the region of £12 million, signing a long term contract in 2013. Since then he has scored 63 goals in 133 appearances for the club.
The 28 year old was pivotal for the Premier League giants during his first season and formed an impressive partnership with Luis Suarez. He helped the team to finish 2nd in the league and was the runner-up for the Premier League golden boot.
He also helped his team to reach the Finals of the Europa league in 2016 but lost against Sevilla. He ended the season as the club’s top scorer with 13 goals.
But for the past 2 season, the England International has struggled a lot with injuries and has just scored 10 goals in 41 appearances. He began the 2016/2017 season as an understudy to Roberto Firmino and mostly used as a substitute.
The Striker managed to score only 3 goals last season before moving to West Bromich Albion on a loan deal for the rest of the season in January. He failed to score any goals for the Baggies and his loan spell ended in relegation from the Premier League.
He has been heavily linked with a summer exit but has returned to Reds duty at the beginning of July for pre-season and has featured in each of the four friendlies so far, impressing against Manchester United.
Sturridge looks like he will stay at the club his summer as Jurgen Klopp believes he will play a crucial role this season and is determine to keep him fit.
“You can see he’s enjoying himself in this moment,” Klopp said as quoted by Liverpool Echo.
“The most important thing is that Daniel stays fit. He only played half an hour today because it’s been an intense week and I didn’t want to take any risks with him.
“Usually we could say 60 minutes for him would have been okay, but he was so good in the last few weeks for us – so no risk. He was obviously fresh when he came in and enjoyed the game. Together with (Xherdan) Shaqiri, he enjoyed it a lot. Hopefully he will be very important.”
“What kind of role? Daniel decides that,” He added. “From my point of view, we have a fantastic relationship. I like him a lot as a person and as a player especially.
“He is an outstanding player. When I came here, I was very excited about the fact I will work together with him back in 2015.
“Since then he has had a few injury issues and we couldn’t change that, he couldn’t change that, it happened.
“A lot of others improved. When I came in one problem of the club was that Daniel would train two days and then everyone would ask if he can play the next game after six weeks with an injury.
“I said ‘no chance, he needs to train’ because that’s how I understand the game. I am completely open to individualising training and saying ‘you do that, you have to do that more’.
“There is no doubt about his quality, if Daniel Sturridge is fit, he will play a role in the team, 100%. Does he have to play 50-something games? No. But hopefully a few really good ones. That’s the plan.”
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