Uruguay’s Luis Suarez during a training session.
Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge are two promising young England players who won a lot of respect in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat against Italy.
Sturridge, 24, scored the lone goal and the 19-year-old Sterling was given the central midfield role by manager Roy Hodgson against Andrea Pirlo in what was only his fifth cap.
Next on are Uruguay which pits them, and the other Liverpool players on the England squad, against their teammate Luis Suarez.
Suarez was rested after recent keyhole knee surgery in Uruguay’s 3-1 upset loss against Costa Rica - with the two results meaning that today’s loser in Sao Paulo can all but go home from group E.
Suarez is Uruguay’s all-time top goal scorer, was the best Premier League top scorer last season with 31 goals and became the first non-European to be voted the best player of the season by the fellow-players in England.
Sterling and Sturridge will now be hoping that he isn’t as deadly against them, or that they can just score that one more goal.
I’d rather not see him on the pitch,” Sterling quipped. “He is great player. (But) All the lads have played him before. We will try our best to keep him out.”
Sturridge joked that “I’m not on texting terms at the moment with Luis!” but he and Sterling also insisted that Uruguay are not just about Suarez but also about others such as Edison Cavani from Paris St Germain.
“He is a great player but we can’t be too focused on him. They have other world class players as well,” Sterling said.
Veteran midfielder Frank Lampard acknowledged that there is “no real way to keep him (Suarez) quiet. You just defend as good as you can, as an individual and a team.”
However, England can also just look at themselves with pride as the Sterling and Sturridge represent a rejuvenated England team which won a lot of praise for the game against Italy.
Young guns shine
“The youngsters have made a big impact. We are all excited by youth, Raheem and the others have been good for the club teams. England was crying for a youthful experience and they brought that. The young will improve but are ready to make an impression,” Lampard said.
He added in reference to Sterling: “We have seen small glimpses of him last year and the second half of this season was spectacular for a young English player. Raheem adapts very quickly.”
Jamaica-born Sterling is a winger in Liverpool. It is his preferred position but he is also ready for other roles.
“It was a great opportunity to tell the football world what I could do ... I had no extra pressure in the central role. I take it in my stride. It is a new position for me, but I try to learn the new role where the manager puts me,” Sterling said.
“You have to learn to play different roles. That’s what I am doing, I am learning every day. The manager said to play my game and not to think too much. As I get older the decision-making and play will get better.”
But victory is needed now to avoid a first English group stage exit since 1958, and Sterling also came to the defence of veteran forward Wayne Rooney, who was criticised for failing yet again to get his first career World Cup goal against Italy in his third appearance at the global stage.
“I looked up to him and training with him is a real honour. I talk a lot with Wayne,” he said.
Like everyone else Sterling was disappointed by the defeat against Italy in steamy Manaus, but he revealed he got a pep talk from his mum who told him to “think about the next game and be raring to go again.”