Stunning Sturridge Produces Virtuoso Performance

Liverpool stormed out of the blocks looking lively with fringe players playing for their futures backed by the away crowds, numbers swelled as it always is in the capital from the huge London support.  Sturridge again in the absence of Suarez led the line, with Shelvey coming in for jnjured captain finally succumbing to his shoulder problem and with the end of the season nigh Coates and Wisdom came in for Agger and Enrique with Rodgers experimenting with three at the back.

Coutinho in his free role ran the show in the opening 20 minutes, his long range drive parried away by Schwarzer, with the Fulham midfield chasing shadows.  Sturridge put through by Carragher in the inside left channel screwed his shot wide of the mark, Berbatov also shanked a shot wide.

The settling down period after the initial flurry, saw the intensity drop and the vibrancy disappear until Damian Duff worked an opening for a cross for Reither down the Fulham right, who in turn superbly crossed for Berbatov, standing embarrassingly alone to nod in after 32 minutes.

Minutes later Daniel Sturridge ran in behind Aaron Hughes on the end of Wisdom's long ball, flicked the ball back over Hughes entering the area, squared him up, before turning him inside out and clinically dispatching a right-footed finish.  It was the finish of a craftsman.

For all the controlled possession, the goal came from a long punt up field and a piece of impudence from the gifted striker showing up the lack of cutting edge in the first half, but why there is no substitute for a potent striker.

The defensive problems in trying to contain Duff and Reither down the Fulham right led Rodgers into replacing Wisdom with Enrique, forgoing the sweeper system and moving back to the conventional 4-4-2.
Daniel Sturridge started the second-half like a man possessed with a couple of sparkling runs. The second of which, he turn past his marker and then ghosted past three defenders before, being shepherded away from goal.   Another run by Johnson from the right saw him surge into the Fulham area before rounding Hangleland, his cut back just failing to reach Shelvey.

In quick succession we could've easily had decisions go against us.  First, Johnson’s over the top tackle might have seen him collect red instead of yellow and a handball claim against Lucas on another day could very well have been given a penalty.

Two minutes later Sturridge gave Liverpool the lead, as Coutinho's deflected shot fell in his path, the young striker arched his body to the right to place the ball coolly into the far corner of the net.

Daniel Sturridge takes the acclaim

Sturridge working his proverbial socks off, then robbed Hangleland and saw his shot well saved by Schwarzer.   The striker now on fire, stormed into the Fulham half, leaving all behind him, bearing down on goal with the intent again of curling the ball inside the far corner, but saw his shot well saved,  when a simple roll across to either Countinho or Shelvey would've seen off Fulham.

The miss almost proved costly, but for Pepe Reina pulling off a stunning save from Aaron Hughes header.

Liverpool were slicing through Fulham at will and Borini on for Shelvey sliced past two defenders cutting in from left, to see his stunning effort smack against the post.

Fortunately, Sturridge atoned for his miscalculation,  fastening on to a stunning Phillipe Coutinho pass before deftly chipping the ball over Schwarzer to give Liverpool a well-deserved win and his sixth goal in his last four games.

Kop-post Man of the Match:  Daniel Sturridge – Led the line with enthusiasm and vigour and direct in everything his did.  While, the stunning Coutinho had arguably equal claims for man of the match, it was Sturridge brilliant first goal which brought us level at a time when we appeared for all our possession as in the West Ham and Everton games that we would again struggle to create clear openings.

As the manager stated he can be greedy, but one feels that he is on a mission to prove himself a worthy striker and that will dissipate over time, in terms of passing to his team mates once he feels more secure with his place in the team.  With Suarez out he will get a continued run in the side at the start of next season, thus he can look onwards and upwards.

* Sturridge has reached 10 Premier League goals quicker (13 games) than any other Liverpool player beating Fowler and Torres (18) and had now scored 11 goals in fifteen games.

Critical Eye:  A soft goal given away with Berbatov standing alone in the box to head the ball home in between two defenders, Carragher and Johnson.  We need to cut that frailty out of our play next season and the need for a strong firm defence is obvious in Brendan Rodgers second season, which will obviously be more critiqued that his first season at Anfield.

Good to see Connor Coady getting on for a few minutes towards the end and the highly rated centre-half Lloyd Jones getting on the bench.

Manager’s comments:  “Daniel was outstanding.  He scored three goals and he could have had maybe six.”

"If he keeps improving, keeps training well, then I think he will have an outstanding couple of years for us.

"He's not perfect. He should have squared one when he was through. But he was looking for his hat-trick, he's a goal scorer, and to be greedy you've got to be good. He's an outstanding player."

Team:  25 Reina, 2 Johnson, 16 Coates, 23 Carragher, 47 Wisdom (Jose Enrique – 46 mins), 10 Coutinho (Coady – 88 mins), 14 Henderson, 19 Downing, 21 Lucas, 33 Shelvey (Borini – 77 min), Sturridge

Subsitutes: 1 Jones, 3 Jose Enrique, 35 Coady, 51 Jones, 11 Assaidi, 29 Borini, 30 Jones

Referee: Mark Halsey

Attendance: 25,640