Klopp Talk: It’s at Anfield, It’s a Quarter-Final, It’s a Big One for Us

We’re coming for you Porto.

The games are coming thick and fast for Liverpool at the moment.

After the nail biting 3-1 win over Southampton on Friday, it’s back to Anfield for Tuesday’s Champions League quarter final with Porto. Not a problem, of course, In Jürgen Klopp’s view.

“We are very ambitious”, The Observer report Klopp as saying. “We have to recover and then we will make the lineup for Porto. We will try everything. It’s at Anfield, it’s a quarter-final, it’s a big one for us.

“We are not Real Madrid who have won it the last three times. We like the competition and we will try everything to win.”

On top of this, there was a certain player who Klopp singled out: none other than maligned captain Jordan Henderson.

“Hendo, from my point of view, is a brilliant player”, the manager added. “He’s our skipper, he’s a fantastic character. If I had to write a book about Hendo, it would be 500 pages. So I’m very positive.

“The most difficult job in the last 500 years of football was to replace Steven Gerrard. In the mind of the people it was like: ‘If it’s not Stevie, then it’s not good enough.’ And [Henderson] has dealt with that outstandingly well. So he can be really proud. Now we have to think of the future and he is a very, very important part of our team. He deserves all the praise but he doesn’t get too much.

“The runs in behind [against Southampton] where Milly [James Milner] and Hendo were pumped up really helped us. I’ve seen him a lot like that, that’s Jordan, that’s him.

“When I came in and thought first about the team, Hendo was a box-to-box player. We made him a No 6 and that’s good. It’s helped him a lot to play in different positions. I told him already that [playing in a more attacking role at Southampton] doesn’t mean he will never play as a No 6 again. He thinks it makes sense, and that’s absolutely true. We play different systems.”

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com