Rodgers hails outstanding Lallana as Liverpool's top four hunt begins

Posted Tuesday, December 30, 2014 by Talksport.co.uk

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers hailed his side's "outstanding" performance against Swansea but reserved special praise for Adam Lallana, whose brace helped secure a 4-1 win at Anfield.

The former Southampton captain initially struggled to find his role at the Merseyside club following his £25million summer move, but has flourished in recent games.

Lallana showed the class which attracted Liverpool to him in the first place with a vibrant display on Monday evening, scoring his side's second and third goals.

The latter was particularly crucial after Swansea star Gylfi Sigurdsson had pulled it back to 2-1 after full-back Alberto Moreno opened the scoring.

"I am very pleased," said Rodgers. "He is a wonderfully-gifted player and it was a big move coming here from Southampton where he was the captain."

"For all the players coming in to a club this size it is difficult because you never know with the expectations."

"They are now starting adapting to that, to what we are doing here and where we want to go."

"It is a very young team, with an average age 22-23, so I was very pleased with the overall performance of Adam. He got his reward for a great performance and a great work rate."

Victory over Garry Monk's Swans saw the Reds end 2014 with back-to-back league wins, and also reduce the gap to the top four to just five points.

And Rodgers believes his side will continue to rise up the standings as they continue to successfully address the issues which have plagued the first half of their season.

The boss added: "I am very pleased with how we are developing. We are finding a way to get that creativity whilst remaining solid and compact.

"Apart from a ten-minute spell after we got the second goal it was a real dominant performance."

One incident which could put a dampener on the result was young Reds star Raheem Sterling's second half spat with Federico Fernandez, which saw the forward flap a hand at the defender's head, which could yet result in retrospective punishment.

That is a fate which almost certainly awaits former Reds midfielder Jonjo Shelvey after he appeared to fling an elbow into Emre Can's face.

"I have seen the two. The cameras will probably show it 100 times tomorrow and we will get bored of watching it," said Rodgers.

"Jonjo has flung his arm out and caught Emre on the side of his head."

"Young Raheem's incident, the centre-half has slapped him on the side of the head and he has put his hand up and slapped him on the side of the head."

"I think the referee has called both right and got on with the game."