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Brendan Rodgers believes Daniel Sturridge is close to firing on all cylinders as he backed the Liverpool FC striker to “light up” the run-in this season.

The Reds boss has had to manage Sturridge's game time carefully since he returned to action in late January after five months out with calf and thigh injuries.

Sturridge, who has scored twice in nine appearances since making his comeback, hasn't started either of Liverpool's last two Premier League matches with Rodgers preferring to use Raheem Sterling as a central striker.

However, Rodgers says Sturridge, who came off the bench late on in Sunday's 2-1 win over Manchester City, will soon regain his role as the focal point of the Reds' attack and he expects him to flourish in their 3-4-2-1 formation.

“Daniel is not fully fit yet and it is difficult for him because these are not training games for him to get fit,” Rodgers said.

“He's excited by the new system. Put a fully fit Daniel Sturridge into that system and it lights it up again.

“Come the end of this week Daniel be on a great run and able to play every game and be able to train.

“He wasn’t quite ready for the Premier League so then we were trying to fit him in in games.

"The Europa League was a great chance to get some game time into him, but after five months out and with his history here that was something we had to think of.

“The last thing we wanted to do was break him. He felt good on Sunday on the back of playing Thursday. He’s very determined to play and when you see a fully fit Daniel, he will be brilliant.”

One Liverpool player who is operating at the peak of his powers ahead of Wednesday night's home clash with Burnley is Philippe Coutinho.

The little Brazilian playmaker has netted three stunning long-range strikes in his past seven matches since penning a new contract to keep him at Anfield until 2020.

Rodgers believes Coutinho feels happy and settled and that has helped his form to blossom.

“We wanted to secure him here and reward him for what he’s done,” he said.

“Certainly there will be a psychological impact on that where he feels this is the place where he’s going to spend the best part of his career and want to be here. That can have a settling effect.

“Before he did sign we spoke about what he needs to do to go to the next level and about scoring goals more regularly because if he can add goals consistently to the talent he’ll be right up there as a world class player.”

Coutinho cost Liverpool just £8.5million when they bought him from Inter Milan in January 2013.

It has proved to be a wise investment with the 22-year-old fast becoming one of the Premier League's hottest properties.

Inter must be cursing the fact they allowed Coutinho to slip from their grasp for such a modest fee.

“I wasn’t so involved in the discussions with them but I’m led to believe there was a financial implication for them in that they had to move some players and of course in Italy there’s not so many young players who get the opportunity,” Rodgers said.

“I’d seen him play with Eto’o and Sneijder in big games and he was just the type of player I love.

“He has a beautiful arrogance on the ball, his touch is magical but he’s effective and efficient with it and playing here at Liverpool, with the dynamics of how we want to work, is perfect for him.

“How much is he worth now? I wouldn’t know. But you can certainly multiply what we paid a number of times though.

“What he gives to the team, he offers that gold dust to how we play. He’s a wonderful player.

“If you see his videos on YouTube playing futsal when he was 11 or 12 in Brazil, he’s playing the same game now only as an adult.

“We knew he had ability, it was just about trusting that ability and allowing it to grow.”