Sturridge not fitting in

Liverpool got back to winning ways on Saturday against West Brom with Daniel Sturridge dropped from the starting line-up. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Jurgen Klopp’s men are more effective without their striker and the stats show why, writes Adam Bate…

Former England cricket captain Nasser Hussain is fond of recalling the tale of a selectors’ meeting in which team-mate Graham Thorpe came under scrutiny by Mike Gatting. Thorpe was regarded as the best batsman in the country but Gatting was unconvinced. The question was asked: “What, apart from runs, does he bring to the party?”

For Hussain, this was reduction ad absurdum. Apart from runs? That was Thorpe’s job. He was right to be baffled given that cricket is a series of individual battles every bit as much as it is a team game. But football is different. What does he bring apart from goals? That’s a legitimate question in a sport of interdependent movement and fluid patterns of play.

It calls to mind the conundrum of Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge, a man whose name merits a mention in any debate about the identity of the finest English finisher in the game today. After all, it’s only five months since Sturridge curled home a wonderful finish to give the Reds the lead in the Europa League final against Sevilla in Basel.

But there’s been little else since. In fact, it’s no longer a question of what Sturridge brings other than goals but whether he delivers them at all. There was a brace in the EFL Cup against Burton Albion and one for England against Malta. But in the Premier League, Sturridge has now gone more than 10 hours – 616 minutes to be precise – without finding the net.

Such a sequence will not last. But the challenge facing Sturridge is more complex and cannot be resolved by one going in off his backside. The goal drought will not go on but the problem is not going to go away that easily either. It’s not just that Sturridge isn’t scoring goals but that his very presence on the pitch damages Liverpool’s chances of getting them.

He struggled to get into the game against Manchester United last week, touching the ball only 22 times as Liverpool failed to find their usual fluency. “We didn’t play …

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