10 Oct 2013

'He has delivered' - Rooney hails 'tremendous' €14m LFC star. Premature...?

With eight goals and two assists in nine games so far this season, Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge is in superb form at the moment, and he's receiving plaudits left, right and centre, the latest of which comes from Manchester United rival Wayne Rooney.

In an interview last night, Rooney told The Express:

"Daniel has been in tremendous form for Liverpool this season. He has scored a lot of goals.

"He has been given a vote of confidence by the manager at Liverpool who has trusted him to play up front.

"He has delivered. I am sure if we play together we will try and work together, try and link up and try and score goals between the two of us."


Praise can be a good confidence booster, but like Rooney, it seems to me that Liverpool players are also falling into the same old premature backslapping routine that seems to befall the team every season.

Not a day goes by without one of the club's players gushing about a team-mate. In the last few days we've had Toure, Skrtel, Enrique, Lucas and Gerrard all raving about the club's 'world class' players, and about how the likes of Suarez and Sturridge are 'amazing' and can 'only get better'.

Of course, they're just following Brendan Rodgers' lead. When it comes to gross overpraise, he is the main culprit, especially when it comes to Suarez and Sturridge, who - according to him - are one of the best strike partnerships in Europe.

That may well be true, but I personally wish he - and the players - would tone down the excessive praise until the team has actually achieved something concrete. It's only October, and the players are acting like they've arrived.

The same backslapping schtick was in evidence in the lead-up to the Southampton game, and look what happened there.

Given the chance, Sturridge - who cost Liverpool a bargain €14m - will probably do the business for England too, but like most LFC fans, I'll be hoping and praying he doesn't get injured...



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11 comments:

  1. hahahaa is true, im very concern about injuries ONLY. From d past few game our #15 been fake his injury (i assume) over the country job and now should be the time for him to deliver...

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  2. I agree with this view. This is where managers of the past (Paisley, Rafa, et al) were very good at being humble in public but then preached tough love to the players behind the scenes. And much like you I just wish and hope BR would say a lot let less more often.

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  3. You know that's Rooney praising him and not a liverpool player right?

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  4. Rooney doesn't play for Liverpool, and if asked about forming a strike partnership with him for England, he is hardly going to say, "No he is poor, I don't think we will play well together"
    Sturridge has certainly delivered since signing for Liverpool, so no I don't think its premature to say that.

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  5. He said Rooney was the latest player singing his praises, he never said he was a Liv player. He highlighted that Liverpool players are the main Sturridge praise singer.

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  6. IMO constant praising is counter productive.

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  7. If Sturridge get's injured I'm going to be extremely vexed!


    If all of Europe adopted a winter break (which is not possible as some leagues start at different times i.e. Russia) then we could have internationals during that time.

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  8. It is clear that the team has lacked confidence and I believe that the team is slapping backs to get what the feeling good factor should feel like if they were normally winning matches. Now they are winning so don't take it away from them. They deserve it... YNWA

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  9. Yes but he also highlighted that Liverpool have fallen in to the trap of praising each other all the time while IMO that had nothing to do with the article. It changed the subject from a United player giving praise to Liverpool players always giving praise. IMO it seemed like a dig at the players but I could be wrong.

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  10. It just seems very strange to use a united player to make a point about liverpool players praising Sturridge. If there are so many quotes with liverpool players doing it why didn't he use one of them?

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  11. Personally, I think the rhetoric passed about by all the players is a bunch of politically-correct nonsense.


    They get asked a question and they don't want to say anything remotely controversial so they shower their counterparts with praise.


    I don't put much credence into it.


    The main types of talk that bothers me are when bad performances are praised and title talk.

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