Daniel Sturridge has now officially completed his move to Liverpool, and the obvious question to ask is what role he play with Luis Suarez already in the fold. Brendan Rodgers had an answer to that today, and shockingly, it involved moving Luis Suarez to make room for Daniels Sturridge in the middle of the attack:
‘Daniel’s best position is as a central striker, I have said 4-3-3 will become richer because of the type of players we have. There is not just one way to play 4-3-3. You can have one up and two wingers, a floating number nine, like Luis Suarez, or you can have one like Daniel Sturridge central, with two in and around him narrow and full backs bombing on.'
‘The principles of your game are based on your players. I think Daniel’s best position will be straight through the middle with his pace. For the common good of the team, Suarez won’t be left out for Sturridge, but might have to take on a modified role.'
‘It is not a problem having top players. We need them. I spoke with Luis about it at length a number of times. This has been planned for a few months. When he played at Ajax, he played in behind as a No 10, in between the lines, and he also played as a reverse winger from the left side. That meant he wasn’t quite out wide, but tucked in round the corner. Wherever he plays, he will make the same movements, and he will find the space, because he is a world-class player.’
Given the choice, I wouldn't have either player as my center forward. Ideally I'd have one or the other of those guys playing in support of a more traditional center forward, as that would seem to play to the strengths of both players.
Without that center forward though, there is absolutely no way I'd be moving my best player from a role he's making his own to accommodate Daniel Sturridge as a center forward. Danny has had a few spells over the past 24 months where he's been absolutely electric, and not surprisingly those two spells were primarily when he was working in support of Kevin Davies or Didier Drogba. Suarez, on the other hand, has shown he's more than capable of excelling when leading the line.
I really like both Danny and Rodgers, and because of this I hope this particular experiment goes well for them. It really better, because I can't imagine that this news is going to go over well with most Liverpool fans. Oh well, maybe if it all goes horribly wrong we can convince them to take Rafa Benitez and Fernando Torres back.