Suarez: I'm calmer since return

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Liverpool striker Luis Suarez insists he has returned from suspension a calmer person and admits he does not want "to be the same as before".

The Uruguay international has scored three goals in two appearances since serving his 10-game ban for biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic.

It is early days yet but both performances have been notable for the 26-year-old's footballing brilliance and not the controversy which has dogged his time in England.

Last weekend Suarez showed his softer side by coming onto the pitch for the pre-match handshakes against Crystal Palace with new-born son Benjamin and three-year-old daughter Delfina, and he believes his family are a steadying influence for him on the field.

"I am aware that in recent matches that I played I've been calmer," he said on his return to Uruguay ahead of crucial World Cup qualifiers.

"I am very self-critical and I realised that playing well, with more tranquility, is helping me a lot.

"I realise and I prefer to continue and not be the same as before."

Suarez surprised many by appearing on the field with his children, but it is something of a tradition among South Americans and, despite initial resistance from club officials, they gave way on the striker's insistence.

"In England it is not common and the first club people told me I was not going to go with them but I told them that my children were going to come with me, like it or not," he told reporters who greeted his arrival at Montevideo airport in comments reported in Uruguayan newspaper El Pais.

"They understood in the end and it was a nice moment, a unique moment for me.

"They (family) make me think hard and calm me. Nowadays I think a lot of them when I'm on the field.