Rodgers: Sturridge return can lift Liverpool

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is hoping that Daniel Sturridge can provide his team with a lift once he returns from injury.

Sturridge, 26, required hip surgery at the end of the campaign and played only 12 games in the Premier League. The England striker could return when Liverpool host Norwich City on Sunday and Rodgers is expecting big things when he does make his comeback.

“He [Sturridge] has been really positive in terms of the training, in terms of his work off the field,” Rodgers said. “He’s come back with a real hunger to succeed, which is great.

“He’s looked really powerful and fast, and his quality is there to see.

“Some of the staff who have come in had heard me talk about him, and they’ve seen from his very first session that we’re talking about a different level of player. And when you have that standard of player available, it can lift you to a new dimension.”

Liverpool — with seven points so far, the same as newly-promoted Norwich — go into Sunday’s match having lost their previous two league games, 3-0 to West Ham and then 3-1 at Manchester United.

And Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers wants to see a side, who have netted only three times in their opening five Premier League games this season, taking more risks in attack as they bid to remedy their goal-scoring problem.

“It is about risk-taking,” he added. “I think, for some reason, that wee bit of risk has gone out of our game.

“We need to ensure we take those risks in order to create in the game and bring that intensity to it.

“The players have been working really hard at that over the last week or so and it only takes that one performance to spin the season around again.”

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