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Emre Can has revealed how he wanted to step into the famous 23 shirt at Liverpool – because he knew how much it meant in the club’s history.

The 21-year-old German has overcome a difficult start to become a firm fans’ favourite after returning to the Reds first team from the bench against Burnley on Boxing Day and starting all 20 games since.

After completing his £9.75m move from Bayer Leverkusen on July 1 last year, such success however was never guaranteed.

But you are left in no doubt that the Frankfurt-born star was always going to back himself as a worthy inheritor of a shirt worn with such distinction by both Jamie Carragher and Robbie Fowler before him.

Can said: “I’m obviously aware of the importance of number 23 in Liverpool history.

“It’s a big honour for me to wear the number 23 after Carragher retired but I don’t feel any extra pressure as such.

“At the end of the day it’s a number that you play and the team has to pick a number. For me it wouldn’t make a difference to wear 23 or 99, I always go out there and do my best for the team.

“But I definitely wanted the number 23 because there is a high importance for this number – I actively asked for it.”

A Rolls Royce footballer? I took it as a compliment but I've got to keep working

Bought primarily as a central midfielder by Brendan Rodgers when he activated his release clause at Leverkusen, it is as a right-sided centre back where Can has shone so far and where he will almost certainly line up in Sunday’s crunch Premier League clash with Manchester United at Anfield.

From there he has been able to step forward impressively at times, ‘breaking lines’ as his manager refers to it and earning himself plenty of praise from the Northern Irishman.

After the 224th Merseyside Derby in February, Rodgers described Can as “like a Roll Royce at the back at 21”. He added: “He defended brilliantly, his quality on the ball was very, very good”

Fast forward a month and the accolades from his manager kept coming.

In a couple of years “he could play in any team in world football, that’s how highly I rate him” said Rodgers.

Can has heard the compliments but knows an awful lot of hard work will be needed if he is to live up to those lofty predictions.

“I feel very good at the moment. I feel the trust of the manager and I feel I’m doing a good job, that’s why I’m playing – so I’m happy.

“I’m proud that a manager of the status of Brendan Rodgers said something like that about me in this way but I know it’s a long way to go and I need to keep giving my best to get there one day, I have to keep on working.

“Rolls Royce footballer? I know what it means but we would not use that expression in Germany at all. I’d never heard it before. I obviously thought it’s a big, luxurious car so I just associated positively things with it.”

I always want to get forward - from any position on the pitch

Can’s current status is a world away from the start of the season when he was painted as one of several Liverpool summer signings in danger of not making the grade.

He hobbled off just 20 minutes into his pre-season debut at Preston North End and later hurt his ankle playing for Germany U21s with his first start for Liverpool not coming until the crazy 3-2 win at QPR in early October.

His deflected goal against Chelsea in early November seemed to offer hope of a breakthrough but he started the next 10 games on the bench before replacing Kolo Toure in the back three at Turf Moor. It was a pivotal moment – Can has barely looked back since, despite a difficult night at Swansea on Monday.

He said: “It was fine for me (playing at the back). The most important thing for me was getting game time and I’m happy about breaking into the team. In the long term it’s definitely my goal to play in the midfield positions.

“I always have this kind of drive to take me forward offensively no matter which position I’m playing.

“The fact that I’m playing in the back three at the moment means there is no player behind me so I have the whole game ahead of me so if there is space I can drive forward into it.”

It will be a difficult game but I want to keep the three points at Anfield

Despite his injuries and subsequent lack of opportunities, he says he was never tempted to go hammering on Brendan Rodgers’ door at Melwood.

“I was obviously injured at the beginning of the season, then had the game against Chelsea but then was out of the team until December when I had my first game against Burnley.

“My attitude was to not moan around or make a big fuss about it but rather to stay calm, work hard, work on myself and then when I got the chance against Burnley I was obviously glad that I broke into the team then.”

Can was an unused substitute in Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford but Sunday’s game will not be his first clash with the Red Devils, having played against them twice for Leverkusen in the Champions League last year.

They were not happy experiences, a 4-2 defeat in Manchester and a 5-0 defeat at home which is United’s biggest away win in the Champions League.

He was unaware that David Moyes scouted him at the time but knows what the ex-Everton boss would have thought: “I played really badly against them.”

Moyes’ successor though is someone who Can rates highly, though he had no dealings with the Dutchman despite being in the Bayern Munich youth team during Van Gaal’s tenure there from 2009-2011.

He said: “Louis Van Gaal does a good job wherever he is in my opinion. It will be a very, very difficult game against Man United because it’s kind of a local derby but I want to get out of the game keeping the three points at Anfield. I definitely want to win the game.”

He compares the Liverpool v United rivalry as similar to that in Germany between Schalke and Borussia Dortmund.

That Ruhr Derby is far and away Germany’s fiercest football battle and one of the world’s finest derbies, combining geographical closeness with the significant cultural differences which also exist between the two M62 rivals.

Passionate it will be, difficult it will be but Anfield’s rising star is in no doubt who will come out on top if a final Champions League spot is to be decided between them.

“Definitely Liverpool”.