Daniel Sturridge believes he is being allowed to flourish under Brendan Rodgers by being deployed in a central attacking role for Liverpool.

The striker notched his 17th goal of the season so far in only his 19th appearance against West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.

In total, Sturridge has fired 28 times in 35 games since moving to Anfield in January 2013 - and he feels operating centrally is allowing him to play 'on instinct'.

He told the Anfield Wrap: "I was never sure if I'd play as a striker [at Chelsea] because people didn't believe in me. I was often asked to play in a different position and to do a job for the team but, having been a striker and then being asked to just flick a switch and play on the wing was always going to be difficult, because mentally you're going to play the way you always have and I play on instinct.

"I think that now I'm just playing the way that I did as a kid but I'd never had the chance to do that. When I was playing as a winger at Chelsea I was overthinking it because I wasn't used to doing it. It's about that split second when you have to decide whether you do this or do that whereas now I'm just playing on instinct.

"I'm just doing the natural thing, playing my natural game and doing things off the cuff. Like the goal against Aston Villa, it happened so fast that I had to watch a video of it afterwards to see what I'd done. "

Watch the video here »