BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche believes Liverpool’s struggles this season have proved that strikers are the key to success – as he prepares to welcome back Sam Vokes from long-term injury.

Liverpool travel to Burnley this afternoon sitting 10th in the Premier League, and both teams have seen key strike partnerships broken up this season.

The Reds almost won the title last season thanks to 52 league goals from Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, while Burnley secured promotion to the Premier League after Vokes and Danny Ings notched 41 goals.

Liverpool then sold Suarez and lost Sturridge to injury, while Vokes may make his long-awaited return from nine months out for Burnley today.

Liverpool have struggled badly without last season’s strike pairing, leaving manager Brendan Rodgers facing severe criticism.

But Dyche, who worked alongside the Liverpool boss during their days together at Watford, said: “He is missing two massive players from last year.

“Suarez and Sturridge were almost unplayable in certain games. That has got to be a loss to any manager.

“We have missed one this season. Ashley Barnes has come in and is doing smashing, but behind that even at Burnley there has been the talk of missing the Vokes and Ings partnership.

“With all due respect they are still learning to be a Suarez and Sturridge type players, so if we are missing them then it is fair to say that if you are Brendan Rodgers you will miss two players like that.

“That is why they all drive massive cars, that’s why the world demands ‘can we find a striker?’.

“It changes the whole view of your team. With us, Vokes and Ings last year were incredible. They made the whole team look even more effective than it might have been without those two.

“Liverpool without Suarez and Sturridge look a different unit.

“Still a good unit. Are they as good? The question remains.

“Strikers make the difference. Rarely did your dad speak to you about the right back. I remember mine talking to me about Ian Rush and other Liverpool strikers.

“It’s always strikers. They make a massive difference to the way a whole team looks.”

Dyche believes Rodgers has been the victim of his own success, after guiding Liverpool to within a whisker of the title against all expectations last season.

He said: “You’d never do this, but imagine the scenario when you say, ‘Listen, let’s lose a few, let’s ease off a little bit, then next year we’ll go again because the story looks better’.

"You take the team so far and so quickly last year, to go that close and then lose two key players for different reasons, it's very difficult, even with the numbers spent.

“I think he’s done very well. It was a fantastic achievement to get so close last year.”