Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge believes that he can strike a profitable partnership with misfit Mario Balotelli as the England international continues on his recovery to full fitness.
Sturridge and Balotelli combined superbly on the latter’s debut at White Hart Lane back in late August but the Italian failed to fit into the lone striker role since Sturridge got injured. In recent weeks however, Balotelli has shown signs of the massive potential he was touted as having, scoring the winner against Tottenham Hotspur before making an impact in the 2-1 win over Crystal Palace in the FA Cup.
Sturridge has already scored twice since coming back from injury though he asserted that he wants the team’s over-all performance to keep on improving. a Ita s important to get a relationship with every player,a he said. a Ia ve been out for a while. Ia ve come back into the set-up and Ia m just doing my best to help the team.”
a Ita s a team game, so every relationshipa s important, from my relationship with (goalkeeper) Simon Mignolet to the strikers.
a I look forward to continuing to play between now and the end of the season, and helping the team have positive results and a successful season.”
a The managera s implemented a system and a mentality in us that wea ll always have and ita s important to us as a team for what wea re trying to achieve.a
a For me ita s easy to play with Mario a and not just Mario, but any of my team-mates,a he said. a I enjoy playing with Mario. Hea s a great guy. I get along with him, and I feel that we can have a successful partnership.”
a Ita s down to the manager and who he selects but from my point of view, I feel I can play with him or any player in the team because I get along with everybody.”
a You have to adapt your game to each individual. Ita s different playing with different players so whether ita s Mario or anyone else, Ia ll do my best to make sure it works for the benefit of the team.a
Manager Brendan Rodgers has urged precaution over the striker’s game time as Liverpool face a fixture pile-up in the coming weeks, and it remains to be seen whether Sturridge will start his first European match in a Liverpool shirt on Thursday when they face Besiktas in the first leg of the Round of 32 in the Europa League.