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It's a tactical switch which Brendan Rodgers is convinced spells double trouble for Premier League defenders.

The Liverpool boss reaped the rewards of playing Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge as an old fashioned front two at the Stadium of Light last weekend.

Having previously utilised one of his strikers either in a deeper role behind the other or out wide, Rodgers took the decision to push them both through the middle in a two-pronged attack. It worked a treat as they provided the inspiration for a 3-1 triumph over Sunderland.

The 3-4-1-2 formation the manager has been trialling will be retained for tomorrow’s home clash with newly-promoted Crystal Palace. The tactics board came out in his Melwood office yesterday as he explained why the system is perfectly suited to bringing the best out of his in-form frontmen.

“It’s about exploiting the strengths of our players and I think this does it well for us,” Rodgers told the ECHO.

“What I’ve found is that if I play one up top and one wide, I take a little bit away from them. They work better as a proper front two.

“The thing I have learned is that Suarez is not a No 10 for me. A No 10 is someone who is more of an offensive midfield player.

“Philippe Coutinho is a No 10 and while he’s been out injured Victor Moses has done really well there. Even though Victor is a wide player he can play that role as he will look for the pass.

“In Suarez and Sturridge, I’ve got what I call two No 9 and a halves. They both like to move, they like to drift and they both like to go into the half positions in between the lines.

“What I’ve said to our front two is that when we’re defending in our half of the pitch, when we can’t press and we are under pressure I am happy for them both to stay up there.

“That gives us nine men behind the ball, the opposition have to leave at least two defenders back covering so even if they push their two full-backs on, the maximum number they can put in our half of the pitch is eight.

“I’ll take that we can defend nine versus eight if that gives me two v two on their half of the pitch because of our strikers’ pace and power. That’s what happened for our second goal at Sunderland.

“When Stevie (Gerrard) won it in the middle he made the pass out to Sturridge who spun out. He was one on one, he went past the defender with his pace and crossed for Suarez, who had bust a gut to get there, to score.”

Rodgers has traditionally favoured a 4-2-3-1 formation during his time at Anfield but the recent switch to playing three at the back had been in the pipeline for a while.

The Reds boss believes he now has the personnel at his disposal to make it work and says there is flexibility to tweak it with the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Glen Johnson and Joe Allen set to return from injury over the coming weeks.

“If you think back to last season, it’s not just something we have thrown on,” he said.

“We’ve done bits and pieces on it in training. We went to three at the back in the game at Everton last season when it worked well for us in the second half.

“We also played it away at Fulham when it didn’t work quite so well, but it allowed me as a coach to take a look at it when the team is under pressure.

“It gave me food for thought in terms of the areas we needed to improve on it. I think there are elements of it which have been very good for us. We look a real threat and are getting lots of bodies forward.

“You’ve got two great players as your front two and then you build the structure around that. I’m not the traditional 4-4-2 man and with the players we’ve got we can make this system work.

“We could vary it. We could play with a No 10 and a flat back four. We could also play with a diamond in midfield but I’d need all my players available for that.

“For me it’s all about getting a numerical advantage centrally to try to dominate the opposition.”

Sturridge grabbed his seventh goal of the season against the Black Cats before turning provider for Suarez, who bagged a clinical double to mark his return to Premier League action in style.

Rodgers is hoping struggling Palace will feel the full force of his striking double act tomorrow.

“They are good players who link well with each other and are on the same wavelength,” he said.

“I have seen that for a while now in training. That understanding between them will only get better the longer they play together. Both players are goal scorers and it’s an exciting partnership.”