I Sometimes Have To Hold Suarez Back – Brendan Rodgers

Liverpool coach Brendan Rodgers admits he sometimes has to hold Luis Suarez back from playing.
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The Uruguayan international has been a revelation this season for the Reds, scooping the Barclays Player of the Month in December for good measure.
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But Rodgers admits he has to try and keep a lid on the forward, particularly in training, when he’s desperate to be on the field when he should be resting.
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When asked if he holds him back, the Northern Irishman told the official Liverpool website: “Absolutely. When I first came in, I rested him in one or two of the cup games and I could see he didn’t like it. I could see he wasn’t overly keen on that. We spoke on it. But he’s just a guy that wants to play all the time. Not for selfish reasons; he wants to help the team.
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“What’s been brilliant about these last four or five months has been his maturity as a man. It’s a sheer pleasure to work with him; he’s a real good man. His maturity on the field is there for everyone to see and his performances speak for themselves.”
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Suarez has helped fire Liverpool into Premier League title contention this season, with his fine form coming off the back of a summer of uncertainty over his future at Anfield.
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But, with a new contract signed, the former Ajax star appears well settled in Merseyside. Rodgers is certainly enjoying working with the player on a day- to-day basis, believing it’s an experience he’ll remember for the rest of his life.
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“I think the experience of working with Luis is something that is going to stay with me for a lifetime. To work with someone with that determination and desire and will to win – he’s a real old-school striker. He’s never, ever injured. He’s never in the treatment room and he loves to train,” Rodgers continued.
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“He comes in every day to work. After a game, you sometimes do a first-day recovery, which is really low intensity. Then you’ll do, for example, a second-day recovery, which is a more active recovery. But you’re still recovering from the game. Luis just wants to train on that day. He just needs to be at it all the time.”
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Rodgers was speaking ahead of this weekend’s Premier League matches, when Liverpool travel to the Potteries to face Stoke City.