Coutinho? We still have Salah, Mane and Firmino, says Henderson

Jordan Henderson believes the reason little has been made of Liverpool’s loss of Philippe Coutinho is that they still have the immense trio of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino starring in attack.

Liverpool crushed Porto 5-0 in Portugal on Wednesday in the first leg of their Champions League round-of-16 tie, putting one foot in the quarter-finals.

Mane stole the show with a hat-trick, but all three of their star forwards played a major role, with Salah scoring their second and Firmino getting the fourth.

Firmino and Salah in particular had been in fine form leading into the match, with the Egyptian scoring in each of his last four appearances across all competitions before the trip to Porto.

And when it was put to captain Henderson that nobody is lamenting the loss of Coutinho to Barcelona, the England international believed there to be a simple reason.

“We still have a lot of quality players like Salah, Mane and Firmino, who create chances,” he said.

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“We knew we would create chances going forward [without Coutinho], but it was about the team.

“It [the 5-0 win] was a team performance. We defended really well from start to finish throughout the whole team and created some good chances.

“It was a good performance and a good result but that is it. We need to move on.”

For much of Jurgen Klopp’s time in charge at Anfield, the Reds have been effective going forward but much poorer defensively.

The £75million signing of Virgil van Dijk was made in an attempt to tighten things up at the back and he appears to have made an impact, with Liverpool keeping three successive clean sheets away from home in all competitions.

Henderson does not doubt his adaptation, calling the Dutchman “brilliant”, though he does suggest Liverpool are simply working better as a unit and defending throughout the team.

“Virgil has been brilliant since he has come in,” added Henderson.

“But again, the whole back four was very good. The team defended from the front.”