Jurgen Klopp has described Adam Lallana as perhaps the “best player, technical-wise”, that he has ever coached.
Lallana has established himself as a key member of the Liverpool first team, and has been the most-improved player since Klopp’s appointment as manager in October 2015.
The England international ranks joint-third in terms of goals and assists (both 7) in the Premier League for the Reds this season, and only Sadio Mane has directly contributed to more goals for the top-flight’s leading scorers.
The 28-year-old was influential once more in the 1-1 draw __with Manchester City on Sunday, but spurned a gilt-edged opportunity to hand the visitors the lead from six yards out.
Klopp absolved Lallana of blame for the incident – which was discussed in 16 Conclusions – and defended the midfielder.
“Obviously he’s one of the best – if not the best – player, technical-wise, I have ever worked with,” Klopp told Liverpool’s official website.
“If he couldn’t [score] in this moment, I thought it was because he worked so hard before.
“The goalie was quite impressive for City today and maybe he made a good movement or whatever, or he [Lallana] was surprised that we played football like this because we hadn’t 20 times before that.
“It was good, but that really can happen.
“Immediately after the game, Adam said ‘sorry’ to me and I thought ‘why?’ – but now I know why he thought he had to say sorry. But he didn’t have to because his performance was outstanding again.”