Adam Lallana is relishing the competition for places in the starting lineup at Liverpool and believes it will raise the level of his performances.
Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane lined up as Liverpool’s front three in the 3-4 victory over Arsenal which meant that Adam Lallana had to be content with a place in central midfield. The Englishman scored a well taken goal and justified his selection in the team over natural central midfielders like James Milner, Emre Can and Marko Grujic.
The expectation to perform is huge and if standards slip Lallana knows he could get replaced by any other one of the Reds’ highly capable midfielders.
“I’ve enjoyed it. I feel like I’m still learning the role and I’ll probably still be learning the role throughout the season – you can always get better,” he told Liverpoolfc.com.
“But I’ve been watching different players that play in that position and it was great to play against Barcelona and some top teams in pre-season to get good run-outs against them.
“I’m enjoying it and [this is] a squad full of great players. If you look around, there are a lot of players that can play in two or three positions, which definitely helps.
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“It’s a different role but one I’ll embrace and I’ll play wherever the manager wants me to play as long as it benefits the team.”
It’s likely that Jürgen Klopp will continue to play Lallana in midfield with his composed form on the ball a pleasure to watch while his energy and desire to win it back is unparalleled. The German manager spoke to journalists ahead of Liverpool’s game against Burnley and the boss spoke of why Lallana’s goal was ‘perfect for him.’
“I remember last season we had a talk, I don’t know exactly when it was. He actually came to me and spoke to me.
“I didn’t really recognise it as an issue. Of course, everybody could score more goals, but I was really happy with his performances and we scored goals.
“It’s not something you can force, you can’t say ‘come on, score goals’.
“But what you can do and that’s why I especially liked the Adam Lallana goal at Arsenal, is Adam involved and six players in the box. That’s the sign for a good team performance and a confident team performance. That’s really important, that we have these different options in the box.
“Gini could make the cross and there were three options to take the ball – Adam was the quickest and finished the situation. That’s a perfect goal, in my opinion.
“It’s not about goalscoring, it’s about being in the right positions to be a threat. They can all score goals and they have all scored goals in their life.
“It’s about being confident enough to be close enough to the right situation so that you can really have the opportunity to score.
“He is playing in a new position. It’s not too new. We changed the style a little bit and he is still a really offensive player. So he needs to be in and around the box in situations like that, and he was – all good.”