What should Liverpool do with Daniel Sturridge?

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Normally in life, if something is broken, you either throw it away or sell it at a knockdown price. For example, imagine owning a luxury, old Ferrari. The car is thrilling. It’s fast, it’s exciting, even the prospect of taking it out on the open road gets your mind racing about the prospect of risk and the pure domination you hold over other road users just from the name and badge adorning the beautiful red chassis. All seems perfect.

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That is until the old car starts to develop problems. A niggling clutch issue here, a damaged component there. Each time you would take the car to the garage and the mechanic would tell you it wasn’t a big fix. But every time, the attempts to get the car back on the road took longer than expected, there were complications, delays, trouble finding the right parts for the right places. The car was now barely being used on the road, and when it was it was reigned back, the driver fearful of more problems and more expense.

The sensible financial decision would be to sell the car. It’s sucking you dry financially, emotionally and you know it may never drive the same way again. However, something tells you not to let go, because the pain of seeing someone else having the time of their life driving your Ferrari around the same streets you did completely outweighs the persistent frustrations of trying to keep the car roadworthy.

This is the kind of problem that Liverpool face with Daniel Sturridge. Jurgen Klopp has an absolute gem of a striker; since arriving at Anfield three years ago, Sturridge has notched 44 times in 73 appearances. Bearing in mind that the England forward had to play a fair few of those games on the comeback from injuries, his strike rate is nothing short of remarkable.

However, In his years at the club, Sturridge’s ratio of being fit and injured is almost bang on 50:50. He should be a reliable force in front of goal, firing Liverpool towards the Champions League places; instead, he watches on from the sides as he teammates often toil to drab results against uninspiring opposition. Sturridge would change these games, if he was fit, but worsening injury problems make that impossible.

So what do the club do? Do they continue to invest in Sturridge’s recovery, hopeful that one day he will return to fitness and fire the Reds back towards their former glory days. Or do they cash in, sell up, pray that the injuries persist and he doesn’t start banging in goals for his new team?

If you only take Sturridge’s on pitch ability into account, the decision is a no brainer: He stays. He is a striker who has everything; pace, skill, power, incredible finishing, he would make any side better by a great deal.

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Furthermore, when compared to Liverpool’s other strikers he is the only one who really has the necessary qualities to lead the line for them. Benteke is slow, lacks the eagerness to get in behind defenders and is having a massive crisis of confidence. Origi, who is currently injured, possesses much more of a will to get in the box than his Belgian counterpart but is still a raw talent at 20. Danny Ings, out with a cruciate ligament injury, doesn’t quite have the same qualities in build-up play that his fellow Englishman has. Sturridge is just perfect for Liverpool.

Contrary to popular belief, Daniel Sturridge’s absence for most of last season was the primary factor behind their disappointing sixth place finish, rather than the sale of Luis Suarez. Admittedly, Suarez’s transfer to Barcelona probably took Liverpool out of the running for a title challenge, but with Sturridge they were more than good enough for the top 4 in 2015/16. Indeed, in the small period of the season where he was fit, Liverpool embarked on a fine unbeaten run that took them to the brink of the top four. As a club facing a large but traversable gap to return to the Champions League, a player of Sturridge’s calibre is invaluable.

If you look at Sturridge’s injury record, however, keeping him looks questionable, maybe even plain daft. Liverpool are paying him massive wages, sending him to specialists for his injury problems, waiting and waiting for the ex-Chelsea striker to come and grab them a goal and it just doesn’t happen. Sturridge has played so few matches in the last one and a half seasons that he might as well not be in the squad, taking up  the budget.

This is where the metaphor of the sports car comes back into it. Sturridge is driving Liverpool fans mad, but to see him in the hands of another would hurt like hell. It’s time to make provisions and sign a quality striker that can take Liverpool back to their 2013/14 heights without Sturridge, but the hope that he gets back to the levels he was reaching back has to be enough to keep it going. The joy of a fit, scoring Sturridge will outweigh the frustration Klopp is feeling now. He simply must stay at Liverpool.

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