Liverpool’s Brendan Rodgers explains Daniel Sturridge substitution

Brendan Rodgers insisted that it “wasn’t a difficult decision” to take Daniel Sturridge off despite the striker hunting for a hat-trick after Liverpool were emphatic derby winners.

The England international scored twice in the space of five first-half minutes, with his second strike an instinctive lob over Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard, following Steven Gerrard’s opener at Anfield.

It wasn’t a difficult decision to take him off

Brendan Rodgers

Luis Suarez added a fourth goal before regular penalty taker Gerrard allowed Sturridge to complete his hat-trick after Howard had brought down Raheem Sterling.

However, the 24-year-old wasted his chance to score his 16th goal of the season as he blasted his effort over the crossbar, and Sturridge was clearly unhappy to be replaced with 18 minutes remaining.

“It wasn’t a difficult decision to take him off,” said Rodgers. “I thought his two finishes were sublime. He was outstanding in the game.

“He’s always a threat. He looks like he can score in every single game that he plays in and he normally does, but I just wanted to shore the game up. We’d put the risk in the game for that first hour or so and we had to balance out on that side.

“Jordan Henderson had to put a real shifty in to get across. So it was time, I felt, to make the change and balance the team back up again and then there was no problem.

“As a coach, to get Sturridge and Suarez into the same team, it’s a bit of a risk because others have got to fill in. But I’d rather do that to give us that offensive threat.

“Then we have to look to close the door somewhere else with other players in the team. Everyone has to work together and that was important for us tonight.”