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Jurgen Klopp insists there is ‘no big mountain’ stopping Daniel Sturridge regaining his place in Liverpool’s starting line-up, with the Reds boss insisting he is adopted a ‘horses for courses’ approach to team selection.

Sturridge scored two as a substitute against Burton Albion on Tuesday, but did so from the right wing – a position he also played, from the start, in last week’s 2-0 defeat to Burnley.

The 26-year-old, who raised eyebrows in midweek after expressing his unhappiness at playing out wide, was named on the bench against Tottenham, despite his cup double.

Klopp would only bring Sturridge on after 88 minutes in place of Sadio Mane, leading to Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness claiming Sturridge has “a mountain to climb” to force his way back into the starting line-up.

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The German coach refuted suggestions that his Spurs set-up was a personal slight against Sturridge and emphasising the striker will get chances this season – depending on the game situation.

“Actually, why should I think about something like this?” Klopp responded, when Souness’ comments were put to him. “Daniel Sturridge is a wonderfully skilful player. But for the game today, I made the decision that the kind of defending what it was and for what we needed.

“In the last game against Tottenham at home he made an outstanding game so it’s possible.

“But I can only pick 11 players for the start, I make these decisions never against one player so I’m really happy that we have him and he will play, he will score and all will be good.

“There’s no big mountain for him. It’s a good team, thank God. Hopefully we can make different line-ups for different games.”

Klopp opted to start with the attacking trio of Mane, Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino – the same threesome which put Arsenal to the sword at the Emirates a fortnight ago.

That saw both Sturridge and Divock Origi named as substitutes, with Klopp conceding the duo are still finding their ‘rhythm’ following their Euro 2016 excursions with England and Belgium respectively.

“He (Sturridge) has now made three games,” added Klopp. “He did not have a perfect pre-season, that’s how it is. A few other players had more pre-season. They played together. These guys up front played together. They’ve trained for the first day of pre-season together so of course that’s an advantage.

“Then when you see when it was still 1-0, we needed someone to come on for the counter attack, that’s Divock and unfortunately even though he was running we didn’t find him.

“Nobody has real rhythm. A few players do have, a few don’t and then you have to judge for the moment.”

The Liverpool boss’ words are in conflict with the opinion of Souness, with the former Reds midfielder remaining doubtful over Sturridge’s adaptability to Klopp’s preferred style of play.

Speaking on Sky Sports after the 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane, he said of Sturridge: “He’s got a mountain to climb.

“If you’re talking about sheer technical ability and an eye for a goal, he’s above them all.

“What he doesn’t have – whether it’s because his body won’t allow it – is that he’s not perpetual motion, he’s not high intensity.

“You can see where Klopp is going with his team, every outfield player has to be prepared to be buzzing for the 90 minutes.

“I don’t think Daniel Sturridge can do that, or he doesn’t want to do it.”