Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp says he is ready to give Daniel Sturridge another chance after being impressed by the striker in pre-season.
Sturridge appeared to be surplus to requirements last summer with the Reds ready to offload the 28-year-old to anyone willing to stump up £20m as his poor injury record had made him unreliable and largely unusable.
Sturridge went to West Brom on loan in January but was injured early on and managed just six appearances.
With 12 months left on his contract it seemed Sturridge’s Anfield career was over but he has looked sharp in his five friendly games and Klopp, who became frustrated by the player’s unavailability last season, is prepared to hand him a lifeline.
“We’re not in doubt – and nobody was ever in doubt – about his quality,” Klopp told liverpoolfc.com.
“In this moment he looks really good to be honest. That’s cool – really cool for him and cool for us.
“(It’s) a very important moment for him. I am in talks with him, what he feels.
“I don’t want to make him the most physically strong player in the squad or whatever.
“The most physically strong player in the squad cannot play football like Daniel Sturridge and he has no possibility to be that, to be the marathon man of the team, but he can be a very decisive player.
“It’s a good moment and hopefully it will stay like that.”
Sturridge could be in line to start the Premier League campaign at home to West Ham in just over a fortnight’s time with Roberto Firmino – along with new goalkeeper and fellow Brazil international Alisson – only rejoining the squad at next week’s training camp in France.
Everyone feels nostalgic for the magical summers of their youth, with endless sunny days, playing football in the park and packing up the car for holidays with mum and dad.
No matter how good the present is, it’d be hard pressed to match the rosy-hue of memories enhanced by time and distance.
The balancing of nostalgia vs present day is one Liverpool are more than well aware of given the club’s rich and storied history. It is something Jurgen Klopp has spoken publicly about, stressing the need to honour the past while creating a new future with his team.
“If you have never had success, then nobody knows how it is, but in Liverpool, everybody knows how it was,” he said.
Alongside the need to match the trophy-winning days of the past, nostalgia for what has been lost comes on a more micro level too, in the annual hope that Daniel Sturridge will recapture the form – and more importantly the fitness – he once had. With Sturridge ‘everyone knows how it was’ because it was so good, with perfect finishing mixed with razor-sharp footballing intelligence and movement.
And as always seems to be the case, he has returned to pre-season looking every inch a quality footballer in every match he has played so far.
Not only have his individual performances been good, but he has already built an on-field rapport with Naby Keita – shown by the new signing finding Sturridge with arrowing passes from midfield more often than not, as the striker peels away from the last defender and heads for goal.
And he has shown a good attitude too with talk of dropping deeper to provide more options for Jurgen Klopp, so much so he will be sticking around for another season.