Jordan Henderson insisted there will be no hangover from Liverpool’s Premier League and Champions League defeats last season.
Liverpool won the FA Cup and League Cup but their hopes of an unprecedented top four were dashed within a week when they were pipped to the Premier League title by Manchester City before losing 1-0 to Real Madrid in the Cup final of the European champions.
But Henderson is confident Liverpool will bounce back quickly from the disappointment, as they have in previous campaigns.
Liverpool lost the Champions League final to Real Madrid in 2018 but responded by winning the competition the following season to lift themselves to a first Premier League title in 2020, 12 months after narrowly missing out to City.
“There’s no need for that – we’ve had disappointments in the past and we haven’t had a hangover, so we’ve always reacted in the right way,” the Liverpool captain said during the club’s pre-season tour in Bangkok. “We won two trophies last year though, so it’s not all negative, there were still positives to take from it.
“It was a fantastic season. Yes, it didn’t end the way we would have liked, but that’s football, that’s life, you get on with it and react the right way and we just want to get on with it again.
“I wouldn’t say it made us more motivated, but you’re always motivated to win the biggest trophies. That’s why we play. We want to be successful. We want to win things and we managed to win two last year. It didn’t end the way we would have liked in the other two, but we pushed to the end and that’s all you can ask for, so move on, take the positives and improve on the things we can improve on. We’ve been doing this for a long period of time and now we just have to keep going, keep pushing.”
Liverpool signed Uruguay striker Darwin Nunes in a club-record £85m deal from Benfica this summer and tied down Mohamed Salah to a new contract but lost Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich. Henderson admits Mane’s departure is a “big blow” but believes they have the attacking options in Salah, Nunes, Luis Diaz, Roberto Firmino and Diogo Hota to compensate for the loss of the Senegal forward.
“Any team that loses Sadio will be a big blow because he is a world-class player, for me one of the best strikers in the world, so it will always be difficult to lose him,” Henderson said. “But at the same time – we have world-class players, especially in the front line: Luis Diaz, who has done phenomenally well [last season]. Darwin is coming, Bobby is coming back, so we have world class options. And things go on, they change, hopefully we can adapt to that quickly.
“Sadio would be a big miss for everyone. We are sad to see him go, but we wish him all the best. For us, you look at the front line and it’s still very, very strong. Having Bobby back is a big bonus for us, he was injured for much of last season. We certainly have a lot of opportunity and hopefully we can produce like we have for the past few years.
“Darwin certainly gives us a different option in the way he plays. He is settling in really well.”
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