Jordan Henderson: Using United win in the right way can help us reach targets
Jordan Henderson wants Liverpool to use the confidence gleaned from the 7-0 demolition of Manchester United ‘in the right way’ for the remainder of the season.
The Reds secured an emphatic victory over their great rivals at Anfield on Sunday to move up to fifth in the Premier League table, just three points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur having played one game fewer.
It was an afternoon that will go down in folklore as Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah all helped themselves to a brace each, before Roberto Firmino wrapped up the scoring.
Nevertheless, Henderson – who made his 400th start for Liverpool in the contest – detailed why no-one within the dressing room will be getting carried away, with plenty of hard work still to be done over the course of the remainder of 2022-23.
The captain spoke with Liverpoolfc.com in the tunnel immediately after the game; scroll down for a full transcript.
On whether the performance was everything the season has lacked so far…
I think so. The performance for the whole game was really good. Intensity and energy levels were high, and something that we have been missing for a while this season. But I thought we performed to the levels we are capable of and when you do that you get your rewards with the goals.
On what allowed such an emphatic second-half showing…
I think we scored at a good time in the first half, four or five minutes before half-time, which is always a good time to score, and then coming out for the second half I thought the second goal was crucial to get that so early on. And then we built from there really, so I thought everybody was outstanding, every single player and the players that came on were brilliant. A big day and one that we’ve got to enjoy but at the same time it’s only another three points and we’ve still got plenty of football to go until the end of the season, and hopefully we can finish strongly.
On keeping another clean sheet and the energy in the team…
To win games you’ve got to keep clean sheets and we’ve kept a few of them in the Premier League over the past few weeks, which was crucial and we need to continue that, and if you do that you always give yourselves a chance of winning games, especially with the players and quality we have in the team to go and hurt the opposition. Hopefully we can build on this and get a bit of momentum to finish the season off well.
On the quality shown by the front three of Salah, Gakpo and Nunez…
Everything seemed to go in, all the chances we created, some great finishing, some great runs, movement and the delivery was good so everything seemed to work and hopefully this gives everyone the confidence to keep building, keep working and keep going right until the end of the season and see where we can get to.
On whether this could be seen as a season-changing performance…
Hopefully we can use it in the right way but you can’t get too confident or overconfident for sure. There are different tests along the way from now until the end of the season that will come and you need to stay positive, stay ready and stay hungry like we were [on Sunday], and that will give us a good chance to finish the season well.