“Klopp has spoken about the importance of Sturridge being able to play through pain, but he said the striker needed no convincing to start”.
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Henderson’s return is ideally timed with Can suspended after accumulating his fifth booking at Southampton.
“He is a worker and he needs to be absolutely fit so for him it’s better how we did it in the last few games”.
“Hendo is a good example of why players must be handled differently”.
It is much too early to judge Klopp a success, but with each dazzling win, each press conference wisecrack and each open-mouthed cackle, Liverpool’s fans fall deeper under his spell. “Sometimes in his game he looks 18, that’s the truth!” he joked.
“But you need to have luck with injuries to be challenging, so we can’t get carried away and look too far forward – we are only in sixth place”.
“It’s a tough situation for him (Origi), he knows he has to learn”, Klopp said.
Can, who played at right-back, centre-back and wing-back under Brendan Rodgers, has benefited from being given a settled role in midfield by Klopp. “But it’s important that we just get back to working hard and putting in a shift in and getting the basics right”.
Defensively, Moreno is a no nonsense defender whose pace is a massive boost to the back line when ever the opposition team counters. “It was the plan before the game that 55 or 60 minutes would be good for him and for us”.
“Now I know what everyone is talking about him, I have seen it first hand”, Klopp said of Sturridge, who was told to toughen up by his manager last week after the striker’s spate of injuries.
Hailing the teenager’s talent, Klopp insisted it is “not easy” to defend one-on-one against Ibe – saying Liverpool could “defend well” and “use his pace” – which is what they did for the next two goals, praising substitute Brad Smith’s “perfect cross” for the final goal of the evening.
“We have a strong team and everyone has confidence, the young guys that came in, the experienced guys, and we just have to continue like this. Danny (Sturridge) scored two goals and showed his quality and we scored some nice goals also”. The frustrating thing about everything is the inconsistency.
In the build-up to Sunday’s meeting with the Reds, Mclaren has confirmed that the confidence of his side is very “fragile” and that no one is “happy” at the club.
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Liverpool have lost on three of their last six visits to Tyneside, but their two win in that spell have been handsome, a 5-1 drubbing in December 2008 and a 6-0 blitz in April 2013.
