England’s folly costs Liverpool dear
Liverpool have confirmed that they will be without their England international striker Daniel Sturridge for up to three weeks following the player sustaining a thigh injury in training with the national side. Other squad members Emre Can and Joe Allen reported back with injuries sustained whilst playing for their countries with ankle and knee complaints respectively. However, whilst injuries to the latter were caused during competitive matches, the club are clearly annoyed that Sturridge has been injured in over-intensive exercise.
Brendan Rodgers quite rightly expressed his disappointment at the situation and hinted that the national team has been guilty of mistreating not only Sturridge but players in general. This is just another example of the sheer backwardness of the England set-up as described recently in the LFC File. The archaic approach of Hodgson and his methods serve only to demonstrate how far the FA is behind the level of expertise and vision of the teams in the country it purports to serve and who entrust the national footballing body with the care of their players. Ultimately this could potentially come at a significant cost to Liverpool.
Readers may think this is an exaggeration but there is no escaping the fact that there is a financial element here to add to the disappointment that Rodgers clearly feels. Seeing as the England team were not in the final stages of a major international tournament, there is no possibility of the club being compensated in a monetary sense for the loss of their player which by all accounts “…could have been avoided…” the Liverpool Boss told the BBC yesterday, explaining that certain players with certain physical characteristics are given different times to recover but this philospohy was not followed by Hodgson and his crew. Thus, the player sustained an injury as a result.
Following recent press criticism of Hodgson. His reaction which has basically been to push the players to near breaking point in order to get them to perform. In particular Sturridge who the England manager openly admitted last year he forced to play through an injury in order to “test him”. Test him for what in the name of Jesus H. Christ? The man must be mad. And, the fact that the FA allow this kind of madness to take place is testament to their clearly not having a clue about the game and those making a living from it. I’m going to be the first one to support “pushing” players who appear not to be focussed. Having said that, it’s not what you do, it’s the way that you do it and the methods used by England are apparently, wrong.
This leaves Rodgers without his main striker, and second choice Mario Balotelli slightly below par due to illness ahead of Saturday’s game against an in-form Aston Villa side. Adam Lallana is also available but I don’t see him as an adequate replacement for Sturridge, as good as he is. Everybody wants to see national side do well. However, if you ask most football fans I’m sure their opinion, as is mine would be that if England’s success comes at the price of your own team’s best players, then given the current approach of the national team and it’s manager, then thanks… But no thanks.
Follow Ben on Twitter: Mrbengreen
