Jota opened the scoring for Liverpool before Sadio Mane smashed in a second to seal the three points for the Reds in the Premier League.
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Liverpool skipper Jordan Henderson heaped praise on Diogo Jota after the Portuguese international opened the scoring in their 2-0 victory against Burnley on Saturday. Jota netted the first in the opening half for Liverpool before Sadio Mane smashed in a second to seal the three points in their first Premier League home match. Henderson came back into the Starting XI on Saturday, making his first competitive appearance of a season that has now brought two wins from two games. The Reds treated their stadium’s first capacity crowd since March 2020 to a comfortable victory that makes it six points from two Premier League games this season.
After the match, Henderson spoke to BT Sport about a variety of topics, including the team’s display, return of the supporters and Jota’s goal scoring form. When asked whether it was the performance he wanted to give a fully-packed Anfield crowd, Jordan Henderson replied, “It was the result! No, I think the performance was good at times. There’s still places where we can improve of course, but overall we’re delighted – the fans are back, it was great to have them back, they gave us a lift. And we got the result in the end, so that’s the most important thing.”
“Burnley are a good side, they make it difficult – we knew that before the game and they certainly did that with the set-pieces and long balls in behind. But I thought overall we dealt with it quite well and we could have scored more goals, if we’re being honest.”
Diogo Jota is known for popping up into good attacking spaces to score crucial goals. He continued that streak on Saturday, scoring another important goal for the team. Speaking about the Portuguese player, Henderson replied, “Yeah, he has, he has got the magic touch. Around the box he’s lively and he manages to make the right runs. And when he gets in front of goal he normally scores. He has been outstanding since he has come back and hopefully he can continue.”
When the score was 1-0, there was some nervous moments for the home side at Anfield as Burnley kept pushing them from set-pieces and other possible scenarios. But, the game was put to rest when Sadio Mane got the crucial second goal. “Yeah, I think the second goal is important in the game. You know if it’s 1-0 in the last 10 minutes they are going to go long and get set-pieces in the last five or 10 minutes, then it can be really difficult. So I think the second goal was big for us to sort of kill the game a little bit. That was an important period in the game,” he added.
When asked whether Anfield has to become a fortress for Liverpool to have a shot at the Premier League title this season, Jordan Henderson replied, “Yeah, always. Always Anfield people will not like to play, I’m telling you now. Without a crowd it’s a totally different game, football was totally different last season with no crowd – not only at Anfield but in general. Now we’ve got the fans back it’s a different ball game. And hopefully we can keep our fortress, if you like, and teams won’t like coming here. We’ve got to make it difficult every time they do.”
