The Reds captain believes his side’s impressive campaign is the result of a mentality shift implemented when the German took over in 2015
Jurgen Klopp has made never giving up part of Liverpool‘s identity, according to captain Jordan Henderson.
Liverpool were on course to cruise to a first league title in 30 years this season, but the coronavirus pandemic has thrown the campaign into flux.
The Reds hold a 25-point advantage over defending Premier League champions Manchester City and Henderson considers their ability to battle until the end key to their stunning haul of 82 points from 29 games.
England international Henderson believes the improved resilience is down to a long-term mentality shift Klopp began attempting to implement after taking over in 2015.
“That sort of mentality and that resilience within us, especially this season, has been massive in terms of the games we’ve won,” Henderson said on Sky Sports News .
“I feel as though that’s something the manager really started to instil in the squad when he first came.
“When he first came, I can remember him talking about never ever stopping and finishing or changing your mentality within a game.
“You always finish, you always keep going no matter what happens within a game, no matter what score it is, right until the very end, because you never know what can happen in football and you need to keep the same mentality and keep going right until the end. I can always remember that right from the very beginning.”
Henderson highlighted a 4-3 second-leg victory over Borussia Dortmund at Anfield in the 2015-16 Europa League quarter-finals , in which Liverpool came back from 3-1 down, as an example of that attitude.
He continued: “If I look back through the time he’s been here and you look at games like Dortmund in the Europa League, coming back like we did in that game, and little games in the Premier League people might not really pick up on, but when you go back I think it has been a progression over a few years and not just one season.
“I think this season has been massive in terms of the consistency of it, but I really feel as though that was a work in progress and it’s now part of our identity really, that no matter what happens within the game we never stop and we never change the mentality until the game’s finished.”
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