Is Daniel Sturridge really as good as Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic and others?

Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge has been in sensational form this season andgrabbed another brace at the weekend to help his side keep tight hold of their place in the top four. He reached a landmark of scoring in eight consecutive Premier League matches to become just the second player to do so, joining Ruud van Nistelrooy.

At Liverpool, the record is held by John Aldridge who scored in 10 consecutive league matches; should Sturridge equal that he must find the net against Southampton and then Manchester United.

While the Englishman was out injured for several weeks over Christmas, his strike partner, Luis Suarez, grabbed all the headlines, scoring 11 goals in eight matches. Since Sturridge’s return, he’s featured in all seven league games, scoring nine goals.

In his run of eight consecutive scoring appearances, he’s grabbed himself 10 goals to move ahead of Sergio Aguero in the scoring charts, on 18 goals, and looks to bear down on Suarez’s tally of 23.

For several weeks now, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has changed his system to allow Sturridge to play as the focal point of a ferocious attack. He tends to swap with Suarez throughout matches but, overall, it is the Englishman who occupies the main central role – and he is benefitting from it.

Sturridge’s double against Swansea now means he’s the fifth highest scorer in Europe’s top five leagues, behind Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Costa and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. What is most impressive, though, is that he’s currently scoring 1.09 goals per 90 minutes, a better figure than his four goal-scoring counterparts.

Ronaldo is scoring 1.08 per 90mins and his teammate, Suarez, is scoring at a rate of 1.05 which shows how good Sturridge has been this season.

Sturridge’s goals per 90 minutes compared to the best in Europe

When he signed for Liverpool last January, many wondered whether he was worth the £12 million Rodgers paid for him as Chelsea brought in the £7m Demba Ba to replace him. Some thought Chelsea had got the better deal – far from it, though. After 13 months at their respective clubs, Sturridge has scored 32 goals in 39 appearances, while Ba has 9 goals in 40 appearances.

Sturridge has scored 28 goals in his first 33 Premier League games for Liverpool which is better than the Kop’s former hero, Fernando Torres, who scored 24 in the same number of matches. In Torres’s first full season, he scored 33 goals in 46 matches but Sturridge is scoring at a higher rate with 21 goals in 23 matches in his first full season at the club.

The Englishman has been on fire and it is no surprise to see Rodgers take full advantage of his fine form by playing him centrally as the focal point of an already incredible attack.

He matches up to Europe’s best in front of goal but Sturridge is lacking when it comes to creativity. That is probably down to the fact that he doesn’t necessarily need to create as he has Suarez, Jordan Henderson, Philippe Coutinho, Steven Gerrard and Raheem Sterling doing that for him.

He has created just 23 chances and assisted five goals. Suarez has completed 65 key passes and assisted 9 goals; Sturridge’s figures are likely to increase next season as he develops as a player but, right now, Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool are happy to keep him firing in front of goal rather than trying to provide for others.

He has completed 1.09 key passes per match which is short of Suarez’s 2.55, Ronaldo’s 1.32, Costa’s 1.31 and Zlatan’s 1.77. However, as you can see, he has benefitted immensely from his team-mate’s creativity.

The top strikers in Europe compared creatively

With 11 games remaining in Liverpool’s season, they are aiming for Premier League glory. With an outside chance of winning the league, they must feel confident with Sturridge in the goal-scoring form he’s in. Should he keep it up, the Reds need not worry about who is below them and start looking up, to their 19th league title.

His 18-goal tally is sure to be improved upon and, who knows, he could catch Luis Suarez and rival the rest of Europe’s best players by the end of the season.

One final to point to make is where does all this leave Sturridge in terms of the world’s best? He is currently one of the top scorers in Europe and looks likely to score every game. With 18 goals in 19 league matches and more still to come, can he be labelled as world class and, truly, one of the best strikers on the planet?