Jordan Henderson has never had anything but positive things to say about Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers, but following his sides recent up-tick in fortunes, the Reds vice-captain has praised the Northern Irishman for his tactical innovation and willingness to takes chances on the pitch.
“He’s outstanding at seeing what’s happening in games and changing it whenever he needs to. We changed to [3-4-3] towards the end of the Basel game and we thought we did well. He looked at that and went through it with us in the meeting room and on the training field. Everyone buys into it because we know he’s so good tactically” enthused Henderson when asked how the manager has influenced their turn-around. “He has proved he’s a top class manager. For me, he’s one of the top managers in the world. If it’s not going right in the first 10 to 15 minutes he will change something.”
Although the Anfield outfit had a bit of a hiccup during the win over Burnley on Boxing Day, they returned very much to form during Tuesday’s trouncing of Swansea City at Anfield, turning over the Welsh side 4-1 in front of a fired up Kop. The Reds have made a hard go of it this season, but with the boss making a number of changes to both the side and the system, Liverpool look on course to turn things around in the New Year.
“He definitely innovates. We all know he wants to get the best out of the team and help everybody to ensure that tactically we are better and improving all the time” he continued. “It’s been hard on everyone this season. We’ve gone from winning every week to not winning as often but the manager has always been the same, always looking to improve things on the training field. If we keep playing like this we’ll get that consistency and more good results. We were good from start to finish against Swansea, on the front foot, closing down well and a real threat going forward.”
