‘It’s nice to be involved’ – Shaqiri delighted to play role in Liverpool win against West Ham

Xherdan Shaqiri was delighted to make his first Premier League appearance of the season for Liverpool as he set up the winning goal against West Ham on Saturday.

The 29-year-old winger replaced Curtis Jones in the 70th minute when the teams were tied at 1-1 and slipped the ball through to fellow substitute Diogo Jota to slot past Lukasz Fabianski.

Although he played the full 90 minutes in the Reds’ Champions League victory against Midtjylland in midweek, Shaqiri has been reduced to a limited role for Jurgen Klopp’s men and he was happy to be back in the team against the Hammers.

“It’s always nice to be involved. Obviously I was injured a few times and it was always the hard way for me until now,” he told the club’s official website.

“I’m very happy that I’ve got my minutes back, I’ve tried to stay fit and I hope it stays like this.”

He continued: “It was unbelievable. Of course, the subs always try to change the game and try to decide the games.

“And, of course, I’m a player and Diogo is also a player who can decide games and we needed that, so it was perfect.

“We both [played a part] in the second goal. It was a nice one and an important one, so we are very happy the three points stay here at Anfield.”

David Moyes’ side gave the reigning Premier League champions a hard time at Anfield and the Switzerland international was relieved to get the three points. 

“It was a tough game. We knew that West Ham would come here with a lot of confidence because they had good results against big teams in the past games,” he said.

“We saw that in the beginning and they went in front early but we kept going and [played] our game until the end. The football we played, we tried and at the end of the day it’s important to win the game and we did that.

“You have to believe until the end and in the end we scored a nice goal and the second one was in the football rules, so we are very happy.”