Daniel Sturridge is an intelligent and compelling pundit, who calls on his past experiences but doesn’t rely on them, and has thus far managed to strike a balance between producing meme-worthy content and providing absorbing analysis. Sky Sports have found a good’un.
That much was clear back in November, as he analysed Darwin Nunez’s struggle for consistency in front of goal. Having revealed that Carlo Ancelotti had advised him to watch clips of Filippo Inzaghi in his time at Chelsea, Sturridge provided advice of his own to the Liverpool striker.
“In terms of Darwin, he needs to be coached, he needs to do training sessions where he is making those runs at pace – and practising particular types of finishes when he’s doing it at match tempo. It does seem like he’s not being composed and relaxing. He is smashing the leather off the ball sometimes. No striker has every tool – but it’s about trying to have as many as you can. So when it comes to the moments, you can do damn near any of the finishes you want to do.”
There’s a lot made – mainly by Graeme Souness – of the need for Football People analysing the game rather than Opta nerds or ‘so-called journalists who are actually paid to do this sh*t’. Much of the time there is no clear benefit to having ex-players in positions to cast judgement, with too much weight given to the importance of Playing The Game rather than a pundit’s ability to analyse or communicate effectively.
Sturridge is an example of where the added value of former professionals outstrips any possible negative; the happy coincidence in his case being that his charisma and intelligence means there are no obvious negatives, for viewer or broadcaster.
Sturridge said Nunez should think about adding a shot through the goalkeeper’s legs to his finishing repertoire, and made a point of praising Caoimhin Kelleher for the way in which he denied Phil Foden’s attempt to do just that on Sunday, a crucial moment that could easily have been (and was) lost amid all that was going on at Anfield.
“His legs went in diagonally to stop the ball. In those positions, attackers will usually put the ball through the goalkeeper’s legs. You can see it here, he sort of slides and blocks it from going through his legs. That’s one of the finishes that typically go in. Kelleher did very well there.”
It feels like that held greater importance for Sturridge because he was a striker, and perhaps would have been missed by you, I or the lads down the pub, most of whom we would suggest are in the ‘hit the target’ school of finishing (which, by the way, is a favourite nonsense phrase of pundits not worthy of lacing Sturridge’s Pradas).
Not being liked by Joey Barton is another triumph for Sturridge. The chief football gammon and misogynist was delighted there were ‘No Women on the real football’ on Sunday but wasn’t happy about having to put up with ‘Sturridge and his vibey vibes’. We’ve never yearned more for fist bumps, slang and edgy clobber.
Sturridge came through for us, and garnered yet further respect through his self-deprecating response to jibes over his garms. Having referenced the importance of his accessory with regards to the title run-in being a “rollercoaster” to the amusement of his fellow pundits and the benefit of click-hungry websites who can write ‘Roy Keane can’t stop smiling at…’ articles, Sturridge then took to social media.
‘Me: I’m just gonna wear this black turtleneck with this simple black blazer. Then ppl can focus on what I have to say and wont have anything to say about my outfit.
‘Internet: why does Sturridge have a seatbelt on!?’
Lovely stuff. And there are other such meme-able moments from Sturridge, including his note-perfect rendition of Usher’s ‘Nice & Slow’ on Super Sunday debut, that have fed the content machine.
But the example that greatly sums up his worth to both broadcasters and the viewers was his analysis of Bryan Mbuemo’s penchant for “making defenders do the stanky leg”, which required little, if any, further explanation, such was his almost visceral phrasing.
It perfectly exhibited Sturridge’s perceptiveness, quality of analysis and those ‘vibes’, hated by Barton and thus loved by us, but more importantly, by Sky Sports, who have found a pundit who ticks most boxes, while wearing something outrageous and laughing about it.
