Show caption Jürgen Klopp also singled Jordan Henderson (right) out for praise after the captain’s excellent performance against Southampton. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images Liverpool Liverpool are too greedy for success to go easy on Porto, says Jürgen Klopp • Taking Europe lightly to boost domestic push not on the agenda

• ‘It’s at Anfield, it’s a quarter-final, it’s a big one for us’ Paul Doyle @Paul_Doyle Sat 6 Apr 2019 22.30 BST Share on Facebook

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Jürgen Klopp has said Liverpool are too hungry for success to consider rationing their efforts in the Champions League. With his team hosting Porto on Tuesday in the last eight, Klopp is not entertaining the notion that taking that tournament lightly will help Liverpool stay above Manchester City on the domestic front. Yes, Liverpool crave the Premier League title. But they are greedy.

“We are very ambitious,” said Klopp after his team came from behind to win 3-1 at Southampton on Friday. “We have to recover and then we will make the lineup for Porto. We will try everything. It’s at Anfield, it’s a quarter-final, it’s a big one for us.”

Besides, he said, Liverpool cannot be blase about the Champions League in what is only their second season in the tournament under his management, the first having ended in a painful defeat in last year’s final. “We are not Real Madrid who have won it the last three times,” he said. “We like the competition and we will try everything to win.”

The ideal scenario would be Liverpool winning by such a large margin on Tuesday that resting players for the second leg would become an option. Looking back to last season provides a perfect example: four days after a Premier League win at Southampton Liverpool thrashed Porto 5-0 in the Champions League, allowing them to start the second leg with Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk on the bench.

Van Dijk’s importance to Liverpool is indisputable but the value of the club’s captain, Jordan Henderson, has long been a matter of debate. Many argue he does not belong in the team’s strongest starting XI. So Henderson’s performance after coming off the bench against Southampton could not have been more timely. He was an inspirational whirr of positivity, charging to wherever he felt he could make an impact. He created the goal that gave Liverpool the lead with a clearance on the edge of his own area and then secured the win by racing into the opposing box to apply an emphatic finish.

He was the box-to-box marauder that Liverpool fans would like to see more regularly, rather than the cautious sitter that critics decry. Henderson has said himself recently that he wants licence to venture forward more often, perhaps recognising that Fabinho is now in the deep-lying driving seat. He has never shied away from trying to fill the vacancy left by Steven Gerrard, no matter how many people said he was not up to it.

“Hendo, from my point of view, is a brilliant player,” Klopp said. “He’s our skipper, he’s a fantastic character. If I had to write a book about Hendo, it would be 500 pages. So I’m very positive. The most difficult job in the last 500 years of football was to replace Steven Gerrard. In the mind of the people it was like: ‘If it’s not Stevie, then it’s not good enough.’ And [Henderson] has dealt with that outstandingly well. So he can be really proud. Now we have to think of the future and he is a very, very important part of our team. He deserves all the praise but he doesn’t get too much.”

His precise role in that team will vary, Klopp said. The manager has generally used him as more of a stabiliser than a stormer but said Henderson’s forward bursts were key to Liverpool’s win at Southampton. “The runs in behind where Milly [James Milner] and Hendo were pumped up really helped us,” Klopp said. “I’ve seen him a lot like that, that’s Jordan, that’s him.” But there will still be times when Henderson is asked to play more conservatively. Klopp says being willing to serve the team in so many roles is part of what makes Henderson so precious.