Liverpool defender Joe Gomez has praised manager Brendan Rodgers after he made his Reds debut in the win at Stoke on Sunday.
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Instead, a familiar face turned out to be the hero of the day.
When Philippe Coutinho picked up the ball in the 86th minute against Stoke and charged forward, goalkeeper Simon Mignolet says he always knew a goal was on the cards.
Meanwhile, former Liverpool captain and manager Graeme Souness feels that having spent heavily in the transfer market during the last two summers, it is only natural the spotlight will now be on Rodgers at the start of this season.
“He’s shown, for such a young player, his quality”.
Finally, revenge was served, with a little sprinkle of Brazilian magic dust.
I saw him do that a few times last year, so it was nice to have him do that while I was on the field and on his side.
“It was pleasing to keep a clean sheet, we looked really solid and as a team we did a good job”.
The Brazil global cut in from the right and unleashed an unstoppable 30-yard drive past Stoke’s new number one Jack Butland that goes some way to papering over the cracks on show in Liverpool’s attack.
Philippe Coutinho gave new-look Liverpool lift-off by launching their Barclays Premier League campaign with a stunning late victor at Stoke. There was also change to be found on the pitch; the quite considerable frame of club captain Gerrard, replaced by free signing James Milner and the considerable talent of the Raheem Sterling was absent as he prepared for his Manchester City debut on Monday at West Brom.
Unlike Liverpool, Stoke endured a testing pre-season, losing four of their six matches, though Hughes is confident that they can put this behind them and win when it matters.
Lovren was on the bench as Liverpool were thrashed 6-1 at the same venue in the final game of last season, and may have wondered if his time at Anfield was up.
“To get a win and perform from where we were 11 weeks ago – I thought it was an outstanding collective performance”.
“Liverpool have invested a lot of money this summer but I did not see £80m worth of difference between the teams”.
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“It will be key for them to get off to a good start, but we want to be hard to beat and try to improve on last season’s points tally”.
