Is there no room for luxury players in football anymore?
The recent episode of ‘Living With Lucy’ featuring Shane Long showed the riches a Premier League footballer can accrue. The Ireland striker lives in a massive house stocked with luxuries such as an indoor swimming pool and wall-sized television, plus a garage stocked with classic Ford Mustangs and Bentleys.
Long springs to mind because he is a footballer who has earned everything he has through hard work – running the channels, hassling defenders, winning aerial challenges, running the channels some more.
Long does not score as much as he should, but none of his managers could ever criticise his work ethic. Long was 18 by the time he signed for Reading and immersed himself in professional football. His skills were never going to be as polished as many of his academy-reared peers and he knew it would take serious effort to bridge the gap.
Daniel Sturridge, in contrast, entered the academy system at the age of seven – hopping from Aston Villa to Coventry to Manchester City, where he would excel in the underage ranks before making his Premier League debut at the age of 17, against a Reading side featuring a 20-year-old Shane Long.
Since then Sturridge’s demanding talents have seen him switch from Manchester City to Chelsea and then on to Liverpool. At Anfield he struck up a potent partnership with Luis Suarez – scoring 21 Premier League goals as the Merseysiders went close to claiming the title in 2013/14.
Since then injuries and the arrival of Jurgen Klopp have seen the striker marginalised to the point where his four goals this season have come in a brace of League Cup braces.
Jamie Carragher was in his final season at Liverpool when Sturridge arrived in the January transfer window, along with a diminutive Brazilian, who did not impress the veteran defender.
‘You could see in training the quiet lad Liverpool signed from Inter Milan in January 2013 was skilful and had ability but I wasn’t sure what I saw at Melwood would translate to the biggest stage, given some of the things he did in those early matches,’ wrote Carragher of Philippe Coutinho in his Daily Mail column.
The Sky Sports pundit now considers Coutinho the best number 10 in the league, putting the transformation down to Klopp’s tough love and big demands.
“Klopp does not indulge luxury players. If you are in his team, you have got to be prepared to work relentlessly, no matter what gifts you have.
“Look at Mario Gotze and Marco Reus from Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund team. They are two fantastic talents but they stood out for how they ran and pressed and worked to make sure the team clicked; No 10s used to expect others to do their running but he wouldn’t allow that to happen,” wrote Carragher.
With Sturridge struggling to command a starting place it seems Klopp is not interested in a player whose career has been built on scoring goals uber alles.
He may not be a 10, but he is expected to work all the same.
The German, along with the likes of Mauricio Pochettino and Pep Guardiola, is placing an emphasis on workrate – ignoring or altering even the most talented if they are not contributing in defence.
One look at what Gotze became when he left Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund for Bayern Munich would be strong argument for the Klopp approach, but there is something mildly depressing in the idea Gheorghe Hagi would struggle to make his mark today.
Or Fabrizio Ravanelli. Or Gianfranco Zola. Or Matt Le Tissier. Or Wes Hoolahan. Or countless other creative players who saved their energies for what they did best.
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