Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has heavily criticised Liverpool for their ‘crazy’ decision of allowing striker Daniel Sturridge to leave the club for West Brom until the end of the season. Sturridge was frustrated at the lack of game time under Jurgen Klopp as the German manager overlooked the striker despite being fit at times.
Given that the World Cup in Russia is nearing, the 28-year-old decided to leave Anfield as a bid to revive his career and book a place in Gareth Southgate’s England squad. While many questioned the club’s decision to allow Sturridge to leave on loan without any reinforcements, Klopp defended the move citing it ‘made sense’.
“We did what we thought was right,” Klopp was quoted in a report by Football365.
“Would I have preferred to keep Philippe Coutinho? Of course but I thought it was sensible to do it. The players who went on loan made sense. Lazar didn’t play for a long time, same with Flanno. Daniel (Sturridge) wanted to leave.”
However, Neville is the latest to criticise Liverpool for allowing someone of Sturridge’s experience depart the club.
“I’m looking at that list of ins and outs and it’s gone under the radar,” Neville said on Sky Sports’ The Debate show (h/t the Mirror).
“And I look at Sturridge. People are saying ‘Sturridge isn’t playing anymore, it’s not a big loss’.
“Firmino gets injured for two months. Liverpool are in the Champions League and are trying to get into the top four… Danny Ings and Solanke.
“Were they wise to let him go? It just seemed a crazy one for me for a massive risk.”
Ings has recently returned from a lengthy lay-off, while hasn’t played much since moving from Chelsea at the start of the season. Meanwhile, Sturridge’s West Brom debut didn’t go as expected as the striker ended on the losing side against his former club Manchester City on Wednesday.
As far as the debate about Sturridge’s move is concerned, I feel that it was a really bad decision from Klopp. The 28-year-old may be injury-prone but would have been a decent backup to have in the squad. We are fighting for top-four this season and with Champions League football set to start this month, we definitely need a big squad.
An injury to Firmino or any attackers will simply leave us depleted. So Klopp’s decision to let Sturridge leave the club makes absolutely no sense.
