Brendan Rodgers praised the spectacular performance tonight from Luis Suarez after witnessing his star striker scored four goals against Norwich City by comparing the Uruguayan with world greats Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Northern Irishman had just witnessed his side romp to a 5-1 victory against the over-matched Canaries, and was clearly thrilled by the top-drawer performance Suarez gave to the Anfield faithful. The former Ajax man now tops the Premier League scoring charts after his haul tonight, which saw him hit his third hat-trick against the Canaries in four matches. Rodgers said:
"Messi and Ronaldo have had a few years, it's all about the numbers and what they produce. Suarez is only 26 and he's still got improvements. Put him on the pitch and you know you're going to get the determination to succeed. I feel for the Norwich defenders." "Look at Suarez, the goals he scored and the assist he's made tonight. The vision and the dip to get it over the keeper in the first goal, his second goal is great improvisation to get in front of the keeper." "Then his third goal. I've watched it back and I just thought 'goodness me how good was that?' The free-kick doesn't surprise me, he practices them all the time."
Rodgers also went on to talk about how happy the striker currently is at the club, contrary to the pre-season's ugly spat which saw the striker accuse his manager of being deceptive and breaking promises. Apparently those days of ill-feeling are gone, with Rodgers looking forward to Suarez bagging goals for the long haul. He said:
"He's happiest he's been here. He wants to train, he's out everyday. His best years are going to be here." "You can see it's a handy glove fit for him. The football we play works well for his style but you've still got to be there to finish it off."
Speaking shortly afterwards, Norwich manager Chris Hughton was also very complimentary to Liverpool's number 7 but felt the magical performance was mainly a result of lax defending. Understandably disappointed with the way the goals came about, he said:
"He's a world class player. If you afford him that much space and time he's one person who has the ability to do what he did today." "I'm disappointed that we gave him too much space and time, we gave him opportunities that he took. We could have done more to stop him having the day that he has had today."
The former Newcastle manager was particularly upset with the second goal that his side conceded, chastising his defenders for not preventing what he deemed was easily preventable effort. He added:
"Players have responsibilities from set plays and you have to hope they're resilient enough to stay with their men. The second goal is the one that really hurts, it's a soft goal."
He also defended his selection choices, as questions were raised as to why Gary Hooper started the game on the bench. Hughton said:
"I decided to go with a 4-3-3 today. Gary is someone that performs better when he has someone close with him and I thought Elmander would give us more running beyond the man."
Liverpool's win ensures they maintain their fourth place position and keep up with the Champions League race, while Norwich are just three points above the relegation zone and looking precarious, just four points above the feared 18th place.
Josh has had work featured in the Evening Gazette and on Newcastle United website. He is a Multimedia Journalism student at Teesside University and runs a successful sports blog. He also enjoys films, comics and TV, writing about anything he can. Josh has recently started writing his first of what he hopes will be many books.
