Daniel Sturridge backs Liverpool to mount title challenge

Striker Daniel Sturridge believes a Champions League place is not beyond Liverpool but however the season finishes, the striker is convinced his side can challenge for the title next season.

The Reds’ top-four hopes took a nosedive with defeats to Manchester United and Arsenal and despite having an FA Cup semi-final to look forward to next weekend they seem certain to miss out on their main aim of retaining Champions League football.

Injury to Sturridge, coupled with the loss of star man Luis Suarez in the summer, contributed to a poor start to the campaign which is now costing them dearly.

However, the England international has not given up on a top-four slot just yet and even if they do fall short he has confidence they can up the ante when they start afresh in August.

“We have, of course, not played as well as we have done in the last season but things change,” said Sturridge. “Of course we aim to play well until the end of the season and next season we will hopefully be able to win the Premier League.

“Top-four is still feasible. We have seven games left and anything is possible.

“Every game is important now. If we advance in the cup we will have nine games and every one will be a cup final.

“The FA Cup is huge for us but we have to still understand we have a chance of getting into the top four.

“We won’t put our eggs in one basket. There are still seven games to go in the Premier League and we are looking forward to playing in each of those.”

Newcastle are the visitors tonight, ideal opponents to get Liverpool’s league form back on track as their Anfield record is woeful.

They have lost 16 times and drawn just three of their last 19 visits, with their last victory at the ground coming in April 1994.

Liverpool will again be without captain Steven Gerrard and defensive lynchpin Martin Skrtel, who both serve the final match of their respective three-game bans.

A one-game suspension to defender Emre Can for last week’s FA Cup quarter-final replay at Blackburn prompted manager Brendan Rodgers to abandon his successful 3-4-3-1 formation and restore a flat-back four, which rewarded him with a clean sheet after conceding six in two games against United and Arsenal.

Rodgers’ flexibility on tactics got Liverpool out of their sticky patch earlier this season and Sturridge believes the way he coaches the players to embrace new styles and systems is a huge asset.

“The manager is adaptable in terms of the way the team plays and changes a lot of things around,” he said.

“It is important to have someone like that in the camp who is a man-manager and talks to the players. It is important you can have a manager you can talk to and we just look forward to playing for this club.”

Newcastle head coach John Carver is hoping Newcastle can put the derby defeat by Sunderland behind them by doing at Liverpool what they finally managed to do at Manchester United last season.

The Magpies had not managed to collect three points at Old Trafford since February 1972 before Yohan Cabaye fired them to a 1-0 win in December 2013, and Carver is pinning his hopes on a similar breakthrough on Merseyside.

He said: “We have a great relationship with the Liverpool fans. Liverpool and Newcastle fans have had some fantastic matches to watch between the sides, like the two 4-3 games there.

“We’ve responded in the past and the players owe it to themselves. We won at Old Trafford last season. So, Theatre of Dreams, Anfield — two meccas of football — and it can be done.

“When we get to Anfield, the fans will still be hurting from last weekend, but hopefully they’ll put all that aside and get behind the team.”