Sturridge: We Knew What We Had To Do

Liverpool manage to wash the bad taste of last week’s loss to Tottenham out of their mouths on Saturday with a 3-0 home win against Huddersfield Town. It’s the kind of result you’d expect out of Liverpool when they face this kind of team, but with their form lately you can never quite assume. This could’ve easily been a trap game. But the Reds did what was expected of them, and that’s good.

If one thing about this game offers unadulterated joy, it’s Daniel Sturridge getting on the scoresheet. Mostly due to injury, his scoring boots have been relatively quiet in recent seasons. A few Liverpool fans on Twitter expressed worry and skepticism about his getting the start against Huddersfield— perhaps the feeling was that Jurgen Klopp was sending a signal that scoring goals is maybe not a priority. (I won’t comment on the justifiability of that sentiment, just that it’s something that goes around.)

But his opening goal for the Reds, a cheeky side-footed chip over the goalkeeper, was a delight to watch. And very much welcome.

Speaking to the club website, Sturridge talked about the challenge in taking on a team like Huddersfield.

"[Huddersfield] were very defensive, I'd say. In the first half especially they made it very difficult for us. They had a bank of a four and a five and the big man up front was trying to hold it up as best he could and win flick-ons. They made it very difficult for us and in the first half you know it could be one of those days where maybe things aren't going our way, you feel the pressure from the fans, and so on and so forth.”

Yet Sturridge wasn’t interested in offering excuses. He knew the team had a job to do.

“But we showed what we could do, we showed the character, we went out there and put our best performance in and performed as we usually would do. We knew what we had to do - it's not really rocket science - playing at home against a team we were expected to beat. We got the job done in the end and we did it with class - we're delighted with the victory."

D-Studge also responded to the news that his goal was his 100th in club competition.

“I didn't even think about that, I completely forgot. I'm grateful to God for blessing me and allowing me to reach that amount of goals. Hopefully there will be a lot more to come - there could've been a lot more but you can never look at the past, you look to the future and say hopefully I'll be able to score another 100 before my career is over."

Agreed. Let’s hope this is the start of a very healthy scoring spree.