Klopp: ‘Crazy devil’ Hendo has nothing to prove to me

David Lynch

JURGEN KLOPP dismissed suggestions that ‘crazy devil’ Jordan Henderson had anything to prove this season after signing a new Liverpool deal.

But the Liverpool boss insists his main focus is on what he and the club’s captain can achieve in the years ahead, not the trophies they have previously brought to Anfield.

Henderson, 31, extended a decade-long stay on Merseyside by penning a new four-year contract over the summer – though his manager does not believe he is using that reward as extra motivation.

Klopp said: “Hendo is essential to all the things we achieved in the last few years so he had no point to prove.

“If anybody thinks he didn’t have a good season last season or whatever – he was injured in the last part of the season, which was very unlucky – but before that he helped us in three different positions pretty much. We had a tough year, all of us, and the decisive period of last year he could not be involved because of injury.

“Then, he went to the Euros and was not involved as much because of the injuries before, that’s how it is.

“But he hasn’t got a point to prove and I never want to give him that feeling because I know his natural motivation is already at the limit it can be.

“You don’t have to put oil in the fire, there is enough fire there already and that’s Hendo.

“His new contract is just what he deserves and what the club needed. We need players like him in the club in the long term.

“These boys, the quality of them, the mindset, the attitude, they set standards for all the rest.

“That’s why it’s important we have these boys in the squad and on the pitch.

“I was not concerned that the new contract would stop him being a crazy devil from time to time.”

With Henderson now tied down for the next four years, Klopp’s focus is on improving his skipper (left) as a player and securing further

success collectively. He added: “Hendo is not old or whatever, he can still develop and he has to and he will.

“I will not stop helping him with that, that’s the situation.

“On and off the pitch, his mindset is made for winning things and I’m really happy to have him here.

“After the last game he surpassed Gareth Barry as the player with the most passes in the Premier League and he still has four or five years to go.

“It’s an absolutely incredible number and he will have a few more, so that says it all about Hendo. He’s an absolutely great, very important figure in this team.

“There is so much more we have to achieve, so much more we have to go for, so much more we can improve.

“And that’s what I’m concerned about, not what we did so far or how many passes we played so far.”