adminLIVERPOOL. — Jurgen Klopp is holding Daniel Sturridge back despite the Liverpool striker insisting he is ready to play. The 26-year-old has been out since picking up a hamstring injury at the start of December against Newcastle.
It happened in just his third game back from a knee problem, but the England star has been back in training for over a week now and revealed on Saturday he is “good to go”.
But Kop boss Klopp is urging restraint with the injury-prone striker who has been plagued by calf, thigh, hip, knee and hamstring problems for the last 18 months.
Klopp said: “I think this is the same thing Daniel said four weeks ago, and we let him play and he was injured again.
“You ask him and he says he’s good. I know he is good, but he has to train. We cannot change the situation, he has to train.
“Last week and this week are the most intensive weeks in training for Daniel Sturridge in the last three years.
“So you can see what we have to do. We cannot say, come on Daniel now you look good so you can play.
“I don’t want to see him in training. Because everybody sees him training and they think ‘oh, come on, bring him into the team, we need his quality’. But no.
“We really, really have to be patient now. We have to wait, we have to train, we have to give the body the right information, and if he can do this, then maybe we can change something.
“Otherwise we always have to stay here in this situation for the next 10 years and always talk about where is Daniel Sturridge, can you play him?
“We have to try and change something, we have tried everything else, so we must try this now.”
Klopp has also laid down the law to Christian Benteke.
The German has warned Benteke that he needs to do more for the team if he is to have a long-term place in his plans.
And Sturridge has been told he will remain on the sidelines until Klopp deems him fit enough to return as he looks to find a solution to the England international’s injury woes.
Benteke came off the bench to score Liverpool’s winner against Leicester on Saturday but Klopp wants the Belgian to contribute more to his high-intensity style.
“We need his goals and he is a goal scorer no doubt, but I don’t only think about him and goals,” Klopp said.
“We are not a team who can play with a striker who scores a goal but is not involved in the game for the other 89 minutes.
“We need the striker for the other options too, to work for the other minutes.”
And Benteke believes Klopp is the right manager to help him develop into a more potent attacking threat for Liverpool.
The Belgian striker scored the winner in Liverpool’s 1-0 win over English Premier League leaders Leicester City on Saturday after coming on for injured compatriot Divock Origi in the first half. — The Daily Star.
Online Reporter