Programme notes'We've come a long way in a year - but we won't stop now'

Ahead of this afternoon’s meeting with Norwich City at Anfield, the captain discusses how Liverpool have progressed since a below-par period at the beginning of 2021.

Henderson, however, also insists nobody within the Reds’ camp is getting carried away amid their four-fronted fight for silverware this season.

“I’ve never been a great one for looking back because in football it really is all about the next game,” the skipper writes.

“But sometimes it can do you good to see how far you’ve come – or otherwise – and in our case we are in a very different place to where we were a year ago.

“To say the first couple of months of 2021 were tough would be an understatement. Injuries in key positions had caught up with us, we were dropping points in a way that was totally out of character for us, and even Anfield had stopped being the stronghold that it had been beforehand.

“We also had no fans in the ground, a factor which should never be downplayed given the advantage that our supporters have always given us.

“As captain I couldn’t and wouldn’t hide the fact that this was one of the toughest spells that I’ve had at Liverpool and I know it was the same for all of the lads.

“Personally, I reached a low ebb when I picked up an injury of my own when we lost the Merseyside derby at Anfield and I think it’s fair to say that not many people were backing us to finish in the top four at that point.

“What has occurred in the 12 months since then is testament to everyone at the club with the fact that we are in the last 16 in the Champions League, in a decent position in the Premier League and still in both domestic cup competitions speaking volumes for everything that has happened since.

“But if there’s one lesson that football has taught me it’s that you can never take progress for granted. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that we haven’t achieved anything – results tell us otherwise – but if we want to make the most of the steps we have taken, we can’t take our foot off the gas now.

“Every day is a chance to get better so we have to keep building.

“The nature of this club is that you can always improve. If you win one trophy, the task then is to go and win another. If you have a good game, the challenge is to do the same in the next one and the one after that.

“If anything, a run of good form only adds to the need to be better because once you have shown what you are capable of, there is no excuse not to maintain or even improve on that standard.

“That’s the message for all of us from now until the end of the season.”

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