Suso Praise for Rodgers Offers Indictment of English Football

Suso signed a new contract earlier in the autumn but has since seen his first team appearances limited by the unexpected emergence of Jose Enrique on the wing. Still, at only 18 years of age it's hardly the worst thing in the world for the young Spaniard the be used as a bench option while he continues to develop his game training with the first team.

And in any case his recent move from starter to squad member seems to have done little to dampen his fondness for new manager Brendan Rodgers, who has made it clear the diminutive attacker is part of his plans a year after Kenny Dalglish left him feeling as though his future lay away from Anfield.

"He pays attention to detail," said Suso of his new boss. "If the team makes mistakes in a game, or if he thinks something was wrong tactically, he'll try to fix it by running through those plays again in training. This way we don't make the same faults again. He's like a Spanish manager.

"He ensures that the players have the ball at almost all times during our training sessions. This is a good tip for anyone—if you're always touching the ball, your control will improve. It's not a method you associate with English football training."

It's almost bizarre to imagine that under Kenny Dalglish and Roy Hodgson—the two previous first team managers Suso has had experience training under—the squad wouldn't have devoted time in training to running through game scenarios that had previously given them troubles. Taken at face value, though, it's the obvious implication when Suso talks of his experiences under Rodgers being in stark contrast to what he had grown to expect from training in England.

Along with a focus on training with the ball, it bodes well for Liverpool as the club works to re-embrace the pass and move approach that has long been associated with it but that in recent years—outside of the second half of the 2010-11 season, at least—hasn't always featured prominently. What it says for and about the rest of English football is something rather entirely different.