Liverpool and England striker is a brilliant footballer but also an individualist who undermines himself with his apparent refusal to accept football is a team gameWatching Daniel Sturridge perform his critically panned one-man show against Slovenia on Tuesday, it was impossible not to picture his increasingly exasperated England team-mates as Alan Partridge in the car park. Dan! Dan! Dan! Over here! Look! I’m unmarked! Dan! Give me the ball! Dan! Don’t shoot! Dan! Stop trying to dribble past four defenders! Pass it! Pass it here! I’m in a much better position than you! Dan! Dan?Maybe Sturridge had a point, his selfishness a way of passing comment on his fellow attackers. Dele Alli managed one neat nutmeg but little of any...
With Manchester United and Liverpool set to meet at Anfield on Monday, one manager’s approach seems stale while the other sounds the voice of modernityJosé Mourinho is only four years older than Jürgen Klopp but in football terms it can feel as though there is a lifetime between them. In part it is an issue of tactics: the hard, high press of which Klopp is such a devotee is modish. When Liverpool and Manchester City went to Tottenham this season and engaged in breathless, percussive styles, it felt like the football of today, the freshest ideas being pitched against each other. Mourinho’s style is more conventional. That does not render it invalid but, with the two managers’ sides poised to...
The German was appointed a year ago on Saturday and his combination of bear hugs, honesty and discipline has changed the atmosphere at the clubA Vauxhall Insignia estate sits in the space at Melwood where a Porsche Panamera GTS used to be. But that’s not it. Too superficial. Plus, he’s an ambassador for Vauxhall. Anfield now houses a luxurious main stand and an extra 8,500 supporters. But that’s not it either. The plans predate him. What about Adam Lallana, transformed from £25m substitute to player of the month nominee, or a team who lacked identity now powering their way into Premier League contention? Evidence of progress, unmistakably, but far from the only change Liverpool have experienced since Jürgen Klopp beamed...