Henderson hails Rodgers influence

Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson has credited manager Brendan Rodgers with playing a key role in his development.

Henderson joined the Anfield outfit in 2011 when former manager Kenny Dalglish was in charge, moving from Sunderland for a reported fee of £16million.

And although he made 37 Premier League appearances for Liverpool – of which 31 were starts – in his first season at the club, the midfielder initially failed to live up to his price tag.

Rodgers made the England international work for his place in the team last term and it paid dividends as he finished strongly, with Henderson continuing his impressive form in the early stages of the current season.

The 23-year-old has played every minute of Liverpool’s three Premier League wins this season and told the club’s official website that Rodgers has been a significant contributor to his development.

“I feel as though I’ve progressed over the last year or two,” Henderson said.

“I’ll try and push on. The manager has been brilliant with me and everybody else here. He’s been fantastic on a personal level.

“I think I’ve improved my game since he’s come to the club and he’s helped me to do that.”

Henderson says his team-mates are delighted by their fast start to the current season, which sees them sitting on top of the Premier League table as the only side with a 100 per cent record.

“We’ve got a lot of momentum after the first three games of the season,” he said.

“There’s always room for improvement and I’m sure we’ll work on that. But we’ve got to be very pleased with the three results.

“Beating Manchester United (1-0 at Anfield in their last fixture) gave us a great boost and it kept the winning mentality and the momentum going, but we know that it’s going to be difficult in our next few games, so we’ll have to keep focused and hopefully we can keep putting in performances like that.”

Liverpool’s next test will come on September 16 when they travel to Swansea City.