Who can take advantage of Sturridge’s absence?

So today news came out that Daniel Sturridge was injured in England training, but now is not the time to worry about the absence of our number one striker. Now is the time for us to think of what changes in his absence. Will we change formation? What personnel will come in? Who will benefit from his injury?

Well first of all I think that Brendan should not change the formation at all. Instead I think that he should just adjust the personnel within it. My first change would be moving Raheem Sterling up alongside Mario Balotelli, the youngster has all of the pace and quality to play up front and it is an idea worth trying.

Of course the beauty of our new found squad depth is that we can play a number of systems, in situations like this we can really see how much quality Brendan has brought in. For once, when our best player has been injured I have not been screaming at the footballing gods, but instead praising the club.

With Sturridge injured we can think about bringing in Lallana, Markovic and Coutinho for the injured man. Compare this to last season when we had to bring in Victor Moses and Iago Aspas. This is when you know the hard work in the transfer market is going to pay off. For Lallana it really is a bonus that Sturridge is injured, because it all but guarentees him a chance to make his debut. The most likely thing Brendan will do is revert to the 4-3-3 system and bring Lallana in for Sturridge.

What Lallana will bring to the team is that little bit of creativity to the forward line. But most importantly he has a real eye for goal which will really benefit our midfield. Also Lallana brings that little bit extra energy, having finished narrowly behind Henderson in the most distance covered in 2013/14.

Another who can really benefit from the Sturridge injury is Fabio Borini. I bet Borini could not believe his luck when the Sturridge injury news came out, and he really has to take this chance. Borini has never had a good run of games for Liverpool and now he has the opportunity to really impress. Because Liverpool are not only looking to replace the goals of a certain Uruguayan, but now also Sturridge.

The injury may only be for a short period of time, but it is actually four games for Liverpool. Two in cup competitions, and two in the Premier League, that is a massive opportunity to impress for the players who have either come back from injury or are on the fringes.