Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers claims it is Daniel Sturridge's responsibility to manage his priorities It was to Rodgers's credit that he said the onus was on the player as much as the Football Association to manage priorities and exertions. Some players - Luis Suárez the prime example - need to be 100 per cent injured to be absent. Sturridge causes fretting unless 100 per cent fit. I am looking at him in training on Friday and he is not right. Whose responsibility is that? It is the association, the player," Rodgers said. All I can do is look and assess who will give me absolutely everything when they go out on the field. We have a game against a massive rival away from home. I need everyone as close to 100 per cent as I possibly can. He is clearly not. A lot of players, especially the top ones, are never 100 per cent fit. Suárez will never have been 100 per cent in his time here. Different personalities, different types. Daniel has been a match winner for us throughout his time here but I didn't feel, because of that level of fitness, he was going to be that for us. I have seen it before. There is a trend. There are some games when he hasn't played well and that has happened on the back of not training. With any player, you have to put yourself on the training field. If you do that, you will be in with a chance of playing. The timing of Sturridge's equaliser ensured that it was a fortuitous draw for the visitors in a game with more turning points than a Formula One circuit. Had Kevin Mirallas been given a red card for decorating Suárez's knee with stud marks, or Joe Allen not missed a chance with his side 2-1 up that will probably ensure a week's therapy with the club's resident psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters, Liverpool might have turned a first-half lead into a comfortable win. Equally, without goalkeeper Simon Mignolet the second half could have been an embarrassment as a Liverpool midfield that looks increasingly fragile at tough venues was exposed. Aside from Mignolet and Suárez, Jon Flanagan was their best player. They still need a top-class defensive midfielder. At the moment they look like flat-track bullies. That is an improvement, but not enough. Everton possess a youthful vibrancy in the area their neighbours need to strengthen. James McCarthy and Ross Barkley, especially, were outstanding. Romelu Lukaku recovered from a difficult first half to strike twice, the shame for his temporary employers being a million will be added to his transfer fee with every goal. Bill Kenwright may need several more revivals of his musical Blood Brothers to raise funds to make that deal permanent, were Chelsea inclined to sell. Roberto Martínez refuses to accept Everton should be seen as a top four contender - understandably cautious but too modest. They have nothing to fear, certainly not from the side they have finished above in successive seasons. If we go into the last 10 games with a chance to be in the top four, then we can be seen as a contender. It's too early," Martínez said. Under his stewardship, the nature of this derby has already changed, Everton no longer the plucky underdog trying to stifle and steal a win or draw, but capable of being more proactive. It made for a cracking spectacle. Philippe Coutinho's clever finish and Suárez's free-kick had put Liverpool ahead after Mirallas's equaliser. Lukaku's double - the second after slack marking from a corner - seemed to have secured the points until Sturridge connected with Steven Gerrard's beautifully weighted set-piece with two minutes left. Liverpool escaped with a point and Sturridge avoided a sterner inquest into why a friendly international was considered more important than the Merseyside derby.