Thursday 3 December 2015 12:45, UK
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was impressed with Daniel Sturridge's performance as the England striker scored twice in Liverpool's 6-1 victory at Southampton.
It took the 26-year-old just 25 minutes of his return to Liverpool's starting line up to find the net and he quickly added a second four minutes later as Liverpool booked their place in the Capital one Cup semi-finals.
And Klopp insists Sturridge, who last started for Liverpool against Everton on October 4, is in a good place after latest comeback from injury.
"If you have six goals then of course you have to talk about the goalscorers," Klopp told Sky Sports.
"It wasn't too bad what Daniel Sturridge did after his long break. I told him that I now know what everybody is talking about because I saw him live for the first time."
And when asked how he intends to keep Sturridge fit, Klopp replied: "It's not the first time somebody has asked me this but we will work with him.
"We will try all we can [to keep him fit]. Sometimes it's bad luck. Even a long period can be bad luck. At this moment he feels good. He felt really good in the game and after the game.
"He doesn't have to play in all the games for us but if we can all together decide when it's the right moment for fighting and when it's the right moment for recovery then everything should be okay."
Despite his two goals, Sturridge was not the only Liverpool striker in the headlines with Divock Origi hitting a hat-trick.
Making just his 11th appearance of the season, Origi hit his first Liverpool goals and Klopp was full of praise for the Belgium international.
"It's not the easiest situation for Origi," Klopp said.
"For him as a young striker he knows he has to learn but for this you need time to play. "We gave him that tonight and he did great in what was a new system with two strikers and a diamond."
Liverpool were behind after just 41 seconds when Sadio Mane headed home from close range but goals from Sturridge, Origi and substitute Jordon Ibe sealed Klopp's side's fourth straight win in all competitions.
The Reds are now unbeaten in five away matches under Klopp and the German has put his side's good run down to the hard work being put in on the training field.
"It was a good game but we had a bad start," Klopp added. "We struck back and at the end you don't often have these moments where you can enjoy a game.
"We had that tonight. I'm very thankful to my team.
"We try to work but not too hard because we don't have time. We have to do some tactical things in training. It's not the most fun thing for the lads but it's what we have to do, especially if we change the system like we did today.
"You always need a bit of luck in football but we knew what we wanted to do and in the end it worked."
