The duo need eight goals in their last seven games to become the highest-scoring Premier League partnership of all time but the Liverpool boss says the pair are “soloists”

Brendan Rodgers believes Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge “are not a pair” despite the duo being on course to become the Premier’s League’s most-prolific partnership of all time.
Sturridge netted Liverpool’s second in Wednesday’s 2-1 win over Sunderland to take his Premier League tally to 20 goals, while Suarez leads the way with 28 strikes.

The pair now need eight goals between them in the remaining seven league games to break the 55-goal record set by Andy Cole and Peter Beardsley for Newcastle United in 1994.

“I’m not really worried [about the record],” Rodgers told Sky Sports.

“I’m more worried about a great Liverpool team. The two boys are special talents in their own right. They are both prolific.

“They are not a pair, for me. They are individual players that play up in a system that works very well. They’re soloists, they can combine, they do looks for each other but they are more individual talents who play up there.

“The most important thing for me is the team. As long as both of them contribute to the team, both with and without the ball, then hopefully they can both go on to become greats.”

The win over Sunderland has put Liverpool second in the table, one points behind Chelsea, but Rodgers admits his players must adapt to teams who adopt a defensive mentality from the start.

“It was always going to be a really difficult game for us. I think the perception of us now is that we’ll score four, five, six goals every game,” said the Liverpool manager.

“It was always going to be difficult especially in that first half with that back five and two defensive midfielders.

“That block of eight was hard for s to penetrate. We had to be patient, hope our quality comes through, our work-rate was outstanding, and obviously we scored two excellent goals.

“Teams will be like that between now and the end of the season. We’ve just got to find the touches and combinations to work our way through.”