Luis Suarez, Liverpool's main man, may have just turned a corner

When Hugo Lloris flew off his line after seeing young Luis Alberto slide a pass forward, he knew it… he just knew it — and all those who were watching knew it — Luis Suarez was going to flick it over him in a masterful way — run over to the Liverpool support and celebrate. It’s a familiar sight, but there was a small difference — he was wearing the captain’s armband. To say Suarez’ time at Liverpool has been ‘mixed’ is an understatement. The word ‘mixed’ doesn’t quite do justice to it. He has scored some phenomenal goals, won matches on his own and has single-handedly increased expectations at Anfield. On the other hand, he got caught up in a racism row with a player who plays for their greatest rivals Manchester United and refused to shake hands with him later, showed rival supporters the middle-finger, evidently hand-balled while scoring in the FA Cup fourth round in 2013 (and celebrated by kissing the same hand), flirted pretty openly with Real Madrid last summer and of course there’s that thing about him occasionally wanting to bite other humans on the football pitch. [caption id=“attachment_1289079” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Liverpool’s Luis Suarez celebrates after scoring a goal during their English Premier League soccer match against Tottenham Hotspur. Reuters[/caption] After every controversy, you thought he’d turn a corner. Now, it would happen now — the guy’s got too much talent to let it be overshadowed by the utter nonsense he is also capable of. And while he’d smash in the goals regularly, there was the constant fear of something idiotic about to happen. Since his return from the Branislav Ivanovic bite ban though, Suarez seems to have finally turned that corner. And tell you what, the Suarez you saw tear apart Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday night was a different Suarez — the most stunning transformation being that he went from ‘disgrace to Liverpool’ to captain of Liverpool. It’s not his goals that caught the eye — it was his overall behaviour. No one ever doubted he can score those goals. No one doubted the audacious talent. It was always the other things — the cheating, the diving and the theater. Against Spurs though, he was calm, composed, didn’t go down easily and simply marvellous on the attack (three assists and two goals). Even when Paulinho stuck a foot into his chest/wrist, the reaction was not rolling about the pitch in horror — it was painful but he didn’t overdo it. In short, he was a leader. He was Liverpool skipper. He led from the front and a Liverpool side without Steven Gerrard and Daniel Sturridge broke down a talented team with sublime ease to win 5-0. Those two players, however vital to the club, were hardly missed as Suarez linked up with Philippe Coutinho, Jordan Henderson and Raheem Sterling in an attacking display that left many baffled. Suarez has scored 17 goals and has created eight in 11 Premier League matches this season. Cristiano Ronaldo has played 15 times for Real Madrid in the La Liga – scoring 17 times and creating five. In the 11 league matches he’s played this season, Lionel Messi has scored eight times and created four. We’ve used a chart below to show where Suarez stands among the top eight forwards in Europe and the numbers are fantastic — he is currently the hottest striker in Europe when you only consider the league. Ronaldo of course, is ahead if you include the six Champions League games he’s played. The columns are divided by games played, minutes played, right-foot, left-foot, headed, other, from inside area, from outside area and total goals (L-R in that order) [caption id=“attachment_1289061” align=“alignleft” width=“622”]  A look at the top ten strikers across Europe. Stats courtesy squawka.com. Brendan Rodgers’ system finally seems to have fallen in place and Liverpool are performing at a higher intensity without an over-reliance on Gerrard. Even when Suarez wasn’t around in early season, Liverpool were winning. With him around, some of their performances have overwhelmed attackers. As Alan Curbishley put it in the half-time show, “the guy thinks two or three yards ahead of every player on the pitch.” His anticipation, movement, ability to wriggle through challenges is just top class. All you can ask from him is the same mentality. And with Gerrard out for some time with an injure, that captain’s armband might just do the trick. It’s an honour so heavy it may just help stay grounded.