James Milner will skipper England tonight and has heralded his Liverpool and international team-mate Daniel Sturridge who’s also set to start his country’s match with Holland at Wembley.
Sturridge sat out the Germany win and watched Harry Kane and Jamie Vardy score, so will have to impress Roy Hodgson this evening if he’s to tempt the manager into using him as a starter in the Euros.
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Milner reckons Sturridge’s natural talent enables him to step back in the side following such lengthy injury problems seamlessly.
“When you have been out for such a long time, the one thing you see is how long it takes someone to get back up to speed,” Milner told the Echo.
“It might take weeks, it might take months. For him it seems to take a warm up and then he is straight out there and he is chopping left and right, his touch is there, his ability in front of goal.
“For me there is no change at all. He’s older and the experiences he has gone through with the injuries have probably made him mentally stronger and hungrier because, when you are frustrated and missing games, you want to get out there. When you get back, you want to do everything to stay there.”
Sturridge has been healthy for two months now, but is still being nurtured back into the side by Jurgen Klopp – sensibly. The Liverpool boss has been subbing Sturridge after the hour mark, and hopefully Hodgson will do the same tonight in England’s friendly.
It would be a travesty if Sturridge was once again crocked on international duty, with Hodgson overusing our prized asset previously to the detriment of Liverpool.
Liverpool have a huge April ahead of us, with Premier League matches with Tottenham and Everton coming up and a Europa League quarterfinal with Borussia Dortmund coming up. We badly need a fully fit and firing Sturridge playing a key role this month.