Brendan Rodgers credits Liverpool’s teamwork as Luis Suarez takes the plaudits

Nov 19 2012 by Philip Kirkbride, Liverpool Echo

LUIS SUAREZ has been labelled a “masterclass marksman” after his two goals inspired Liverpool to a third league win of the season.

The Uruguayan claimed his ninth and 10th strikes of the Premier League campaign at Anfield on Saturday as the Reds scored three times in less than 20 minutes during a second half blitz against Wigan Athletic.

Suarez now has 13 goals in all competitions this season, just four short of his entire tally from the previous campaign.

And Reds manager Brendan Rodgers believes the 25-year-old is proving himself amongst the very best strikers in world football.

But in the aftermath of Liverpool’s victory – which moved them up to 11th in the table – Rodgers took even greater satisfaction from the team’s performance and the way they created the two chances for Suarez to pounce.

“The guy has created a number of goals on his own this season,” said Rodgers.

“He is a real masterclass marksman. Fantastic and up there with the world’s best, but no one has mentioned Jose Enrique. His explosive run on the inside and he has found a dead weight pass. The touch and finish for the goal was brilliant and goalscorers will always get the credit but for me the credit goes to the team today because I thought the team was excellent.

“You have to give great credit to Raheem Sterling when you see the first goal again. It’s wonderful combination but his weight of pass was fantastic and it just set it up for a great, great finish. It is confidence, work on the trying field and it is the player. He is very confident, he is enjoying his work and you see that in his game.”

Rodgers, meanwhile, has explained his first-half tactical switch which saw Suso replaced with Jordan Henderson.

The Spain u-21 forward had been one of the Reds’ more lively players during the opening period but after 37 minutes was brought off, with Henderson coming on in his place.

Rodgers switched Liverpool’s formation to 4-1-4-1 from a 4-2-3-1 which gave Luis Suarez greater support.

“You can let it run but I always try to use my intuition and what I feel is best for the team at that moment. Suso had some nice touches, he nearly scored but that’s a part of the game. I just felt that I’d flip the triangle around.

“We were playing two and one, and I felt that it wasn’t so good for us when we didn’t have the ball. Then just flip the triangle round and two players going to join in, and that seemed to work well for us.”