Liverpool and Uruguay striker Luis Suarez is pigheaded but used that trait to overcome an error-ridden start to his career and become the great striker he is today, claimed national coach Oscar Tabarez on Sunday.
The 27-year-old, who on Sunday became the first Liverpool player to score 30 league goals in a season since Ian Rush in the 1986/87 campaign, loves rising to challenges, said Tabarez, and he faced quite a few in his early days at Under-20 level.
"Suarez would miss easy chances, lose possession and was jeered at times," Tabarez told a group of foreign journalists in an interview published in Sao Paolo newspaper Folha de Sao Paolo.
"But I noticed something about him: he thrived in adversity and accepted challenges. He always tried to put the ball past his opponent and then run onto it in front of goal, something he started succeeding in doing on more occasions and in the process made fewer mistakes.
"Also being a pigheaded character it helped him to persevere and ultimately succeed."
Tabarez, who with a side including Suarez coached Uruguay to the 2011 Copa America title a year after they got to the World Cup semi-finals where the striker was suspended, said he had made relentless progress since then.
"He has assumed more responsibility and has as a result always been up to scratch for us," said Tabarez.
Uruguay, who Tabarez will be taking to a third World Cup finals, have been drawn in Group D at the World Cup with Italy, England and Costa Rica.
