Daniel Sturridge has offered an insight into how Jurgen Klopp will be managing his Liverpool side behind the scenes as the Reds chase an unprecedented quadruple.
Having already beaten Chelsea to win the League Cup back in February, Liverpool will face the Londoners at Wembley again next month for the FA Cup final, while they take on Villarreal in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals this week. Meanwhile, they currently trail Man City by a single point in the Premier League title-race with five games left to go.
Spending six and a half seasons at Anfield, Sturridge was part of Reds side that twice narrowly missed out on the Premier League title in 2013/14 and 2018/19, but won the Champions League in the latter season. And the former Liverpool striker, who also played for both Man City and Chelsea before moving to Merseyside, has backed Klopp’s men to win further silverware before the end of the season.
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“He’s fantastic. He gets the best out of the players, he sets the team up very well,” Sturridge said of Klopp. “On and off the pitch, everybody knows their roles and everybody what the expectations are, not only of him but of representing Liverpool Football Club.
“He’s done an absolutely amazing job since he joined the club. They’ve been in final after final, challenging for Premier Leagues. Everybody should be happy and grateful also to the ownership for putting faith and finding Jurgen as the manager and helping the club move forward as a whole.
“(This season has) been a huge success. In terms of the performances, the attacking, the defending. They’ve got huge depth within the squad which has enabled the manager to rotate when needed and when necessary, to pose the opposition different problems.
“Of course everyone talks about the quadruple and the opportunity they have there to create some history. In the season, they started so well and are at the business end of the season now.
“If they win a couple of trophies or three trophies, I think that’s a huge success. If they do the quadruple, it’s an even bigger success. The players will know what the task is at hand and what they need to do to achieve those things.
“And the manager will be doing everything possible in his scope to get the boys prepared for that.”
Sturridge was speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live after seeing his former club beat Everton 2-0 in Sunday’s Merseyside derby win at Anfield, with old team-mate Divock Origi emerging from the bench to clinch victory for the Reds.
The Belgian looks set to leave Liverpool at the end of his contract this summer, having had to get used to being a bit-part player under Klopp. Having a suffered a similar fate under the German himself before leaving Anfield in 2019, Sturridge, who now plays in Australia for Perth Glory, is not surprised to see Origi continuing to make an impact despite limited game-time.
“With the changes the manager made (against Everton), they made a huge impact and they got the result they needed in the end,” he said. “I worked with Divock for many years when I was at Liverpool. He’s a great human being, works hard on the training pitch and he scores goals.
“He’s a natural goalscorer. When he gets his opportunities, he does take them and he definitely likes to play against Everton as well! It’s a great thing not only for the fans but for himself.
“I think so (it’s difficult not playing), but also when you’re at a big club and the manager has a lot of options within the squad, which Liverpool have an amazing squad right now, especially in the attacking third, there’s going to be a lot of rotation.
“So for every player that plays for a big club, it’s important to know that there’s going to be games when you’re not going to play, there’s going to be games when you are going to play and games you’re going to be asked to come onto the football pitch and to create something, to make a change and to make an impact.
“Divock’s great at that and has been great at that for Liverpool throughout his career.”
