Paul Scholes: Liverpool and Uruguay’s Luis Suarez is a “lucky” striker

Luis Suarez of Uruguay (L) performs passing drills during a Uruguay training session ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil match against England at Arena de Sao Paulo on June 18, 2014 in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Former Manchester United and England midfielder Paul Scholes has labelled Uruguay striker Luis Suarez as a “lucky” striker, telling Paddy Power that the Liverpool striker gets breaks that other strikers don’t.

Comparing Suarez to his former Manchester United team-mate Carlos Tevez, Scholes called Suarez “a nuisance,” and revealed that former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson never used to make specific plans to deal with the 27-year-old when playing against Liverpool.

However Scholes did acknowledge that Suarez improved his game last season, in which he took his Premier League goal tally from 23 to 31 goals, putting the increased impact down to the Uruguay forward being less selfish.

“Suarez reminds me of Carlos Tevez. He’s a nuisance – never gives you a minute’s peace. Suarez is also a lucky player.

“The ball seems to bounce off him into the right place. Luck or skill – he gets breaks other forwards don’t.

“In 2012/2013 Suarez was pretty selfish and missed too many chances for Liverpool. Thinking of my time at Man United we didn’t worry about Suarez much – he’d barely get a kick at Old Trafford and I don’t remember any specific strategy to try to stop him playing, like we did with Park Ji-Sung on Andrea Pirlo in the Champions League, for example.

“Last season Suarez changed his game and wasn’t just thinking about himself. It made him a better player, especially in his partnership with Daniel Sturridge. His performances against Man United changed too “

Suarez is likely to face England in the World Cup when the two sides meet in Group D on Thursday, having missed Uruguay’s defeat to Costa Rica on Saturday through injury. However even if he is fit, Scholes believes that the striker is unlikely to be at 100% match sharpness, having only undergone knee surgery five weeks ago.

“Suarez says he’s ‘100% fit’ now. But is he fit enough?”, questioned Scholes.

“However 100% he feels after training, playing matches at this level is completely different – England could get lucky in this regard.”