However, the England worldwide was left on the bench during Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to Villarreal in their Europa League semi-final first leg, and Christian Benteke was chosen to come on as a late substitute instead.
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An injury-time Adrian Lopez now means that the Reds need to score at Anfield in their Europa League semi-final tie with Villarreal.
The late victor sparked wild celebrations at El Madrigal, but Klopp reminded the Yellow Submarine that they still face a daunting trip to England next week.
Adrian Lopez’s injury time goal means the Reds will have to come from behind if they are to reach their first European final in nearly a decade.
He told the Mirror: “There are things I want to achieve with Liverpool”. I don’t know what they’ll do [at Anfield], but we won’t change our idea.
Sturridge was an unused substitute in Thursday’s 1-0 UEFA Europa League defeat to Villarreal, and he admits not playing hurts a lot.
However, the Premier League side lost their defensive discipline in the final few seconds – and it could prove crucial.
“On Sunday all English people will have lunch while we play football”. It was not really for attacking, but we had this moment and I thought it wasn’t a bad idea [to bring Benteke on]. “[On Thursday] I didn’t think about his weaknesses, we just had to find a line-up which knows how to defend against a side like Villarreal without any training time together”, said the Liverpool boss, whose side face Swansea City in the Premier League on Sunday. There are lot of things we could ask but it makes no sense. We got home at 3.30am [on Friday], and I guess no-one slept straight away.
“They could not defend us”.
“They played one chip ball on the back of Kolo Toure and Alberto is not there – I don’t know where he was”.
“We could have let him play in the first few weeks, hoping he could do something special, but that would not have been the right decision for him because then he would have been injured again”.
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Sturridge has slammed players who falsely claim to be “one-club men” (*cough* Fabian Delph *cough*), delivering a reality check about footballers’ careers.
