Is Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge the most underrated striker at the World Cup?

This World Cup will be Daniel Sturridge’s first big tournament for England

Considering the last year and a half of Daniel Sturridge’s career, it’s strange that he’s only recently been accepted as a guaranteed starter for the national side.

England have very few players who’ve shown the consistent form Sturridge has, with his record of 31 goals in 43 league games for Liverpool over the past season and a half placing him amongst the best strikers in the Premier League.

Sturridge’s Liverpool goalscoring record includes 21 in 29 this season.

Oddly enough, there is still debate in the media over whether Sturridge should be the focal point of England’s attack come Saturday. Roy Hodgson is seemingly against the idea that the likes of Rooney or Welbeck would start up-front for England, suggesting yesterday that Sturridge and his new Liverpool teammate Ricky Lambert are the two main options available to him for that role.

After Sturridge missed a handful of chances against Honduras, however, the good-feeling established over Sturridge’s impressive season with Liverpool seemed to have diminished slightly and questions now exist over whether the team should be built around him.

So, heading into England’s opening clash with Italy, we ask whether Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge is one of the more underrated strikers at the World Cup.

What we’ve found is that when compared to other strikers going to the World Cup, Sturridge is comfortably one of the best players statistically. His inclusion in England’s side gives them access to one of the better forwards operating in world football today.

It must be remembered that prior to his move to Liverpool, Sturridge’s star was fading. An unsuccessful spell at Chelsea made people query the sensibility of signing him for £12 million. The confidence of Brendan Rodgers in Sturridge as a central striker has completely altered the course of his career.

In contrast, no other potential striking star of the World Cup arrived at his club for a fee as low as Sturridge’s. Uruguay’s Edinson Cavani signed for PSG last summer for €64.5 million. Sturridge’s rival for the England berth, Wayne Rooney, was the subject of a £25.6 million move as a teenager, and even an ageing Robin Van Persie commanded a £20 million transfer fee two summers ago. None of them have impressed on Sturridge’s level in the last year.

Demonstrating Sturridge’s incredible goal return per 90 minutes played.

Goals scored must, ultimately, be the metric on which every striker is judged, and Sturridge was comfortably the most impressive of the four last season, scoring 0.83 goals for every 90 minutes of football played. Cavani, Rooney, and Van Persie managed 0.63, 0.63, and 0.68 respectively.

Sturridge’s shot accuracy percentage last season in comparison to Cavani and Van Persie

The majority of the criticism of Sturridge post-Honduras came as a result of his shooting, but once again he fares fairly well. Whilst Rooney offers the best return, hitting the target with 53% of his shots, Sturridge still achieved an impressive 49%. Cavani is on target with only 45% of his shots, whilst Van Persie has a similar record with 46%.

He’s also the sort of poacher that should benefit from the array of offensive talent available to play behind him at the World Cup. 17 of his 21 goals last season came from inside the area, 80%, compared to Rooney’s 64%. Sturridge can clearly convert chances when he is provided with them. Having Rooney behind him to craft chances also makes sense, given Rooney’s impressive record of ten assists last season.

Ultimately, England have one of the better out-and-out strikers available at the World Cup, and it would make sense to exploit that as much as possible.