Sturridge, 26, missed the bulk of last season with a string of thigh and calf injuries which ultimately led to a hip operation, and was then sidelined by a knee injury just before Klopp took over at Anfield in October.
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“You ask him and he says he’s good”.
“Now we can continue but I want to see my players enjoy it. I don’t know why we were so nervous at the beginning. Why?”
Daniel Sturridge has once again failed to maintain his fitness, while Christian Benteke has, as yet, not proven worth the money they paid to secure him from Aston Villa over the summer.
“I hope it’s not too serious, we will see”, he said.
“If you give them open gaps in the midfield, it’s almost not possible to look good as a centre half and how we did against Leicester and in some other games makes the job easier for them. You could see against Leicester that I showed I understand his message, and now I have to keep going like that”.
“I am still a young player and I want to learn”, he said.
“Benteke did really well in the last week in training but we decided on this starting line-up because of the things you saw from Divock in the first half-hour – we needed his speed”.
We need his goals and he is a goal scorer no doubt, but I don’t only think about him and goals. Sometimes you have to do “this” and then you say next game we have to do “this”, he added.
While he’s not naturally the most mobile forward, Benteke will need to be able to improve his work rate if he’s to thrive in Klopp’s setup, it would seem.
He has yet to start back-to-back league matches under the German but that is set to change as he is now the only fit striker with Origi the latest to fall victim to a hamstring injury.
Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri has told his players they have to enjoy their football and not be restricted by their place at the top of the Barclays Premier League.
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Liverpool’s win over Leicester was their first in five games and following successive away defeats in the Premier League they go to struggling Sunderland on Wednesday night with Klopp looking for greater consistency.
