Sunday 20 December 2015 18:27, UK
Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has hailed Jurgen Klopp's impact since he took over at Anfield ahead of their game with Watford live on Sky Sports 1 HD on Sunday afternoon.
The charismatic German took over the middle of October, with the England international also making his return from injury in recent weeks as the busy Christmas schedule starts to kick in.
The Reds have lost just twice in 14 games under Klopp, and scored a late equaliser against West Brom last weekend to pick up a draw with an arm-waving show of appreciation in front of the Kop causing a stir after the match.
"The new manager has come in, and he's been brilliant," Henderson told Sky Sports in an exclusive interview. "All the lads have taken to him and he is a real positive influence on the group.
"What you see is what you get with him. He is very passionate, and very emotional, and I think he wants to put that into the team.
"We have seen that over the past few weeks that performances have improved, and the longer we have with him [Klopp], and the more influence he has, then we will just keep getting better and better.
"I've seen the celebration before in Germany and I think that will be build an even bigger connection with the fans even though we already have a good one, and I think the fans will appreciate that.
"It comes from a different culture and a different game but that doesn't mean it's wrong. The fans are always with us whether we win, lose or draw. Of course it looks much better when we are winning but I think the last 10 minutes against West Brom showed just how far we'd come in a short space of time.
"In the past we might have lost that game but we managed to get a point and we can take a lot of positives from that game. It was just a thank you to the fans for sticking with us for the whole game."
However, the draw with West Brom means the Reds have picked up just one of a possible six in their last two games.
The Liverpool skipper acknowledged that there is much room for improvement and, having scored against the Baggies, on his first league start since August, is hoping he can make a positive impact with his all-action approach seemingly tailor-made for a Klopp team.
"A lot of my game is on running but I also like contributing in the final third, whether it's goals or assists, so I need to make sure I'm doing that for the team but doing the other dirty work as well and defending," said Henderson.
"I think in both games, against Newcastle and West Brom, we had a lot of the ball.
"They've probably done a lot more running trying to get the ball back, but you can look at it the other way and say we should be winning the ball back a lot quicker and we should be doing a lot more running in those terms.
"I don't tend to look too much at the stats, it's more about performance and results really. The performance level against Newcastle wasn't good enough, we know that and that showed in the result.
"Against West Brom, it was good at times but it can be a lot better at times as well so we can improve a lot but we can take a lot of positives out of West Brom into the game against Watford."
Prior to the game at Newcastle, Liverpool were being touted as potential title contenders in some quarters and while Henderson admitted he was unsure just how far this side could go, he insisted they have the quality to finish "very high in the league."
"I don't think anyone knows where we'll end up, to be honest," he added. "The only thing we can concentrate on is ourselves and what we want to achieve and making sure we're doing everything we can to achieve that.
"I'm very confident in the group that we have. If we keep working hard and keep improving then we can finish very high in the league.
"We've got a great bunch of lads as well, not only as players, but as people and I think that goes a long way, you can see it on the pitch.
"We've got a very good feeling about the second half of the season but we need to start stringing some results together and be more consistent in games because anything can happen.
"I think the quality of teams further down the league have got much higher but I believe we have a lot of quality and have a group that can be high up in the table."
