Watching 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 significance. Jesse Lingard, ever the polite guest, endeared himself to the locals by giving Jan Oblak some catching practice with his crosses. It was Theo Walcott who was unable to find his way back to the pitch after one impressively pacy run down a dead-end too many. Andros Townsend came on and had a slightly dangerous shot from long range before disappearing from view and there was an encouraging cameo from promising young whippersnapper Wayne Rooney, who looked like one for the future.
In that context picking out Sturridge seems unfair. Yet for all that it was a night of collective ineptitude, he still managed to stand apart, out on his own, a brilliantly gifted footballer but an individualist who cannot help but undermine himself with his apparent refusal to accept it is a team game. A tragic aroma hangs over him as he looks increasingly lost and alone and sad on the pitch.
Ryan Giggs, a pundit on the game for ITV, did not hold back when asked for his assessment. Recalling he played alongside him for Great Britain at London 2012, Giggs praised Sturridge’s touch, speed and awareness, saying he possesses all the necessary attributes to become a top player. Everything, that is, apart from the ability to make the right decision in the final third.
Fair though it is to wonder if Sturridge’s history of injury problems has delayed the maturation process, those with his best interests at heart must hope Giggs’s observations hit a nerve with a footballer who can no longer be spoken of in terms of potential. Sturridge is 27, supposedly approaching his peak.
Quick, inventive and capable of making it seem as though the ball is glued to his left foot, he is a forward with the enviable skill of surprising goalkeepers by shooting early with no backlift, as Sevilla discovered with that outrageous stabbed finish in the Europa League final.
Sturridge also scored Liverpool's decisive goal in the Europa League semi-final win over Villarreal, whose defenders were unable to contain him at Anfield in May. Resist the urge to write him off as another example of an overhyped and underskilled English player. Not only is it a cliche, it ignores reality. Sturridge can play. He has scored a goal against Italy at a World Cup. He provided a rare moment of English quality in France with that snappy winner against Wales. Alongside Luis Suárez, he almost took Liverpool to the title in 2014. Roy Hodgson may have given us Harry Kane, corner-taker extraordinaire, but he was right when he said Sturridge is England's most naturally talented striker.
It is not enough in a serious team and unlikely to be enough for Jürgen Klopp without concerted improvement, just as Roberto Di Matteo deemed there was no place for Sturridge in the Chelsea side who ground their way to the Champions League in 2012.
There is a temptation to depict Sturridge's tunnel-vision affliction as all that is wrong with English footballers and their struggle to think coherently on the international stage. Something happens to them when they put on that shirt. Eric Dier does not play blind passes for Tottenham Hotspur. Walcott has been one of Arsenal's best players this season. Jordan Henderson has been assured for Liverpool.
These are players rated respectively by Mauricio Pochettino, Arsène Wenger and Klopp, all of which boosts the theory that if Jeremy Paxman had been forced to wear an England shirt during his Newsnight pomp, he would have been reduced to asking politicians about their favourite crisp flavour. Lounging around at Casa St James, Sam Allardyce must have raised a pint of wine to the Daily Telegraph’s entrapment team, grateful the responsibility for eradicating this mental block belongs to Gareth Southgate now.
But Sturridge’s slump goes deeper than England’s loss of composure in pressure moments. Too often, this is how it is for club and country, and there are times when we are watching a player who is yet to realise he is crying out for help. The infamous Sturridge scowl, unveiled when Klopp brought on Divock Origi before him against Tottenham in August, suggests he has not understood why this is happening, why his mooching brand of Sturridgeball (one man’s quest to turn a football match into a 90-minute appreciation of Daniel Sturridge’s genius) is so incompatible with Liverpool’s pressing, scurrying, interchangeable front three.
There have admittedly been pleasing signs of progress, hints Klopp may be getting through to Sturridge, whose lovely backheeled assist to set up Sadio Mané against Leicester City last month was a step in the right direction. Yet his overindulgence against Slovenia heightened the impression of a player craving attention from his manager, like a precocious child trying to impress his bored teacher by reciting the alphabet backwards after being asked to name a vowel. In the same way we are programmed to find that child the most annoying thing in the world, Sturridge needs to stop overcomplicating everything, let it flow naturally and remember no one likes a ball hog.
(Guardian service)
