Hendo hails Brazilian as 'outstanding'
Jordan Henderson hailed the 'outstanding' creative vision of Philippe Coutinho after the Brazilian teed up his equaliser against Aston Villa with a defence-splitting pass.
The England U21 captain raced onto the sublime ball from Liverpool's No.10 to make it 1-1, and Steven Gerrard then won it for the Reds with a penalty after Luis Suarez was brought down.
"It was a great start to the second half for us and it was a great ball from Philippe, and thankfully I managed to slot it in, so I'm over the moon," Henderson told Liverpoolfc.com.
"It was all about the ball from Philippe which was outstanding and I thank him for that one.
"Philippe is brilliant and I think everyone can see that. He's a real talent and he's young as well. He has been outstanding since he came into the team and hopefully he can keep that going."
Liverpool's No.14 explained how Brendan Rodgers' team-talk during the interval helped inspire the Reds to overturn a deficit secured by Christian Benteke's first-half smasher.
He added: "We were really pleased with our second-half performance. I thought we came out and played some good stuff, defended very well, so overall we are delighted with the three points.
"The manager told us at half-time to up our game a little bit more. We were doing okay and probably were the better team in the first half, just, but in the second we took that on board, got forward more and got the two goals.
"Suarez did brilliantly to win the penalty for us and we all know Stevie is brilliant at penalties."
Henderson also paid tribute to his skipper for a miraculous goalline clearance to deny Benteke with the score at 2-1.
He said: "It was unbelievable. Stevie was outstanding again for us and he's been doing that for many years now so it's not a surprise to anyone."
Brendan Rodgers restored Henderson to his starting 11 for the first time since the Europa League clash with Zenit at Anfield on February 21.
The midfielder now hopes his display at Villa Park will be enough to keep him in the side.
He added: "It's nice to play football. The team has been playing brilliantly of late. I haven't played as much as I would have liked but I got the chance here and thankfully we won. Hopefully we can win more games now."