Football
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Brendan Rodgers: Liverpool must learn how to cope without Daniel Sturridge

LIVERPOOL -- Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has told his players that they must find a way to win regularly without the injured Daniel Sturridge.

Rodgers is likely to be without Sturridge, 25, until mid-November, telling a news conference on Thursday that there is no definite timescale as to when he will return from a calf strain.

The striker has not played for Liverpool since Aug. 31, having suffered a thigh problem during an England training session on Sep. 5. He had only just returned to full training with his club when he was struck down seven days ago with his latest injury, which was expected to keep him out for up to a month.

Sturridge's strike partnership with Luis Suarez was a major factor in Liverpool's title challenge last season, as they scored 52 of the club's 101 Premier League goals between them.

Suarez -- who got 31 of the goals -- moved to Barcelona in July, although he would not have been able to feature for Liverpool before late-October even if he had stayed, having been serving a four-month suspension for biting Italy's Giorgio Chiellini while playing for Uruguay at the summer's World Cup.

Sturridge, scorer of 21 league goals last season, was expected to become the focal point for the Reds' attack this term. As a result, his absence has been keenly felt by Liverpool, with Rodgers acknowledging that none of the other strikers at the club can be used as a like-for-like replacement.

"Anyone will recognise that if you take out of our team the goal threat that we had last year, then you're removing a huge percentage of that efficiency," he said.

"But for us it's about finding a different way to get the same result, which is to win games. It's not been as fluent or as effective, but we're working hard to master that."

Mario Balotelli is the quickest of the other recognised strikers at the club, but despite being faster than Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini, he cannot match Sturridge for pace.

That has allowed opposition defences -- and, as a consequence, midfields -- to play a little higher up the pitch, knowing they are less likely to be caught out by a quick break, and so putting more pressure on Liverpool's own midfield and back line.

Rodgers added: "When Daniel plays, it opens up a lot more spaces, and gives us that fluency and fluidity within the team that can create space for other players. It's something we want to get back as quickly as we can."

One alternative option, which Rodgers tried in the second half as his team were beaten 3-0 at home by Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday, is to move Raheem Sterling -- who can match Sturridge for pace -- further forward into a central attacking role. The Reds boss chose to use Sterling rather than Lambert in that position after taking off Balotelli at half-time.

But despite that, Rodgers insists Lambert -- who has made just one Premier League start since his four million-pound move from Southampton in the summer -- has a key role to play at Anfield.

"Rickie's role is important for us. It might not always seem that way, because he doesn't play so much, but he has been working outstandingly well every day," he said. "He's there when required, and when he's called upon, he always gives 100 percent to what we're trying to achieve.

"Rickie has always been very clear about his position and what the expectations of him are. Rickie knew he was going to get games here. He knew he wasn't going to be a starter, but that there would be times when the team would need him.

"That's how it's panned out for him, really, in his time here. In the game last night, we needed something tactically different, which was about speed and mobility, and that was why we put Raheem through the middle."

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