Sturridge Show at Craven Cottage

On Sunday 12^th May, Liverpool faced Fulham at Craven Cottage. Despite going 1-0 down, Liverpool romped on to a 3-1 victory, and frankly it could (and probably should) have been a lot more.

Unusually, Liverpool weren’t able to get off to a quick start. They saw more of the ball early on, but weren’t being at all incisive, and struggled to create any real chances. Fulham were also struggling to come up with any decent attacks. However, on 31 minutes, Sascha Reither put in a lovely cross, which allowed Berbatov to head home from close range. It was obviously disappointing to go behind, but in my opinion we weren’t positive enough in possession, and consequently were asking to be caught out by a one-off attack.

Fortunately, Fulham’s goal acted as the stimulation Liverpool needed. They came alive, and just 3 minutes after Berbatov’s strike we equalised through Daniel Sturridge. The striker was picked out in the box and looked to have dwelled too long on the ball, but then showed a quick burst of pace to get past his defender, then blasted high into the net, past a helpless Schwarzer. Despite a couple more chances for Liverpool, the teams went in level.

Liverpool came out strongly in the second half, as they should have done in the first. Fulham were pinned back, and both Phillippe Coutinho and Glen Johnson had goal-scoring opportunities. They didn’t convert, but eventually the LFC pressure paid off,  Sturridge latching on to Coutinho’s deflected shot and guiding it smartly round the keeper. This effectively killed off Fulham, and despite being only a goal behind, they never showed any signs of being able to salvage anything from the game. Liverpool then created a plethora of chances, but somehow failed to add another until five minutes from time, where Sturridge completed his hat-trick with a lovely chip over the oncoming Mark Schwarzer.

Daniel Sturridge played brilliantly, and is so far proving to be an excellent signing. He certainly made the difference in this game. However, his form is slightly hit and miss, and he does have a tendency to be too selfish. Had he passed a little more yesterday instead of desperately trying to complete his hat-trick it may well have been 5 or 6! On the whole though, he has the makings of a potential key player in Liverpool’s upcoming seasons, as he is the potent goal threat that (other than Luis Suarez) we have been lacking recently.  With two clinical strikers (once Suarez returns from his ban), Liverpool will hopefully no longer have the issue with wasting chances that they had at the start of this season. If we are able to make a couple more quality additions to our squad over the summer, there’s no reason why we can’t push for the top 4, or potentially even higher, next season.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013