Jurgen Klopp was happy for Daniel Sturridge after he marked his first Premier League start since October with a goal.

The oft-injured striker managed to get through 62 minutes for the Reds as they smashed Aston Villa 6-0 at Villa Park on Sunday.

Sturridge headed home Philippe Coutinho's left-wing cross in the 16th minute to kick things off for Liverpool and it was a welcome return according to Klopp who was not at all taken aback by the fact the England international produced after a lengthy injury absence.

"We need the goals of Daniel and he needs the goals. For me it's not a surprise he can score goals," Klopp said.

"He is a real striker. It's really good to see. When he hides himself on the pitch it's really difficult to defend (against) if he is always somewhere.

"He changed a lot of things but we can only speak about this when he is available. When he's not we cannot say 'but with Daniel it would have been different'. It was brilliant and you saw he was not too happy when we took him off.

"It was perfect for him and hopefully he is available for us for the next game. It was a perfect goal and it's good for us when we have all players available. In football life is not like this and you have to get results when you don't have all players available."