FeatureKop 10: Daniel Sturridge's best Liverpool goals

A six-and-a-half-year stay with the Reds began when the England forward sealed his switch to Merseyside from Chelsea.

Sturridge would go on to score 67 goals in 160 appearances for the club, claiming a Champions League winner’s medal just prior to bidding farewell in 2019.

Here, we have picked out our 10 favourite strikes from his collection at Liverpool…

v Manchester City (A) – February 2013

Sturridge made a scintillating start to his Liverpool career following his arrival in January 2013, scoring 11 times before the end of the season.

This effort was the fourth of those and an outstanding one.

Receiving Steven Gerrard’s pass infield around 25 yards from the Manchester City goal, he traps the ball and then unleashes a sumptuous strike.

With little back-lift off his left foot, Sturridge sends an unstoppable shot whistling into the bottom right corner in the blink of an eye.

v Fulham (A) – May 2013

We really could have selected any of the three goals Sturridge delivered on this late-spring afternoon at Craven Cottage.

Each of them were typically clinical in their own way, though the first of his hat-trick stands out for exhibiting so much of Sturridge’s talent in one full swoop.

After bringing the ball under control inside the Fulham area, a deft swivel of the body baffles his marker to create shooting space on the angle.

And the final touch is emphatic and exact, the Englishman walloping his strike high into the roof of the net.

v Aston Villa (A) – August 2013

There are three Aston Villa defenders smothering Sturridge when a Philippe Coutinho dummy brings the ball to him inside the box here.

A wriggle of his frame takes them out of the game simultaneously and carves out a one-v-one with the goalkeeper.

Sturridge opts to go around the onrushing Brad Guzan, too, and achieves that mission with wonderful close control.

He’s losing balance slightly by the time he has bamboozled those four opponents, and the shooting angle is narrowing. But a rising finish provides the right sign-off to a solo special.

v West Bromwich Albion (H) – October 2013

Likely a good many people’s favourite Sturridge goal at Liverpool, even watching it back with knowledge it is hard to see what he’s about to do.

He’s crowded by markers as he drifts with possession towards the left-hand side of the edge of the Baggies’ box.

Then, suddenly, Sturridge has dinked a shot up into the air that has ‘perfect’ written all over it.

Boaz Myhill is struggling immediately and can only watch as the effort soars over his head and down into the Kop-end net.

Just lovely.

v Everton (A) – November 2013

This topsy-turvy Merseyside derby has swung, perhaps irrevocably, in Everton’s favour at Goodison Park as the hosts lead 3-2 late on.

A Liverpool free-kick in the right channel offers hope of a rescue act, though, and it’s an excellent delivery into the near post from Gerrard.

Sturridge meets the cross with a big leap and a flicked header that directs the ball into the far corner for a dramatic and memorable 89th-minute equaliser.

v Everton (H) – January 2014

It was a rather more straightforward Merseyside derby for Liverpool a couple of months later.

Sturridge contributed two of their four unanswered goals on a raucous evening at Anfield, with both efforts classy in isolation.

We plumped for his second for this list, which saw Sturridge break in behind the Blues defence to meet a lofted pass.

Realising that Tim Howard was racing out from his goalline, he hooked a brilliant first-time lob over the visiting goalkeeper and into the exposed net.

v Aston Villa (H) – September 2015

An injury-affected season denied the Reds the regular services of Sturridge in 2014-15.

But he would return to double figures for goals in the next campaign, with this thumped volley past Villa up there with the pick of the bunch.

There was plenty to do when James Milner hoisted the ball forward to the box, and Sturridge rose to the task with one touch – lashing it across the goalkeeper.

“What a screaming goal!” ran the commentary. Spot on.

v Newcastle United (H) – April 2016

Not a goal of huge significance but another that nicely captured Sturridge’s repertoire.

Within two minutes of kick-off, he needs just three touches to turn an awkward long pass towards the area into a Liverpool goal.

The first controls the ball via his shoulder, the second shifts the ball away from two nearby defenders, the third drags the ball low into the bottom corner.

Truly clinical.

v Sevilla (N) – May 2016

Ultimately, a goal with little meaning, but undoubtedly a moment of sheer Sturridge skill.

In the first half of Liverpool’s Europa League showpiece meeting with Sevilla, the No.15 has possession on the edge of the box.

For a split-second, the ball sits motionless as he plots a path to goal that appears to be safely blocked by a number of opposition bodies.

Wrong.

Sturridge draws back his left boot and pings a finish off the front of his foot that swerves inward from outside the target to the smallest gap between the goalkeeper’s outstretched glove and the far post.

An elite effort that sadly was a mere consolation on a night when the La Liga side defeated the Reds to take the trophy.

v Chelsea (A) – September 2018

Sturridge’s last Liverpool goal has strong claims to be his best.

At the home of his former club in the early phases of the 2018-19 season, the Reds were trailing 1-0 with the game ticking into its 89th minute.

Any route to an equalising goal did not seem clear when Sturridge collected a pass outside the left corner of the opposition box, but the forward had spotted an opportunity.

That he had the technique to achieve it is the marvel of it, Sturridge moving the ball out of his feet and arcing it up, over Kepa Arrizabalaga and back down inside the right edge of the goalframe.

Sublime.

More Kop 10s...

• Fastest Liverpool hat-tricks
• Liverpool's best Premier League free-kicks
• Liverpool's most memorable comebacks under Jürgen Klopp