'It was a big lift to have Daniel and Jordan back'
The return of both Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge from injury on Sunday can help Liverpool maintain their winning form on all fronts, believes Jordon Ibe.
As well as a 1-0 victory over Swansea City in the Barclays Premier League, the sight of the English duo back out on the pitch for the Reds made for a positive afternoon at Anfield.
Henderson had not featured for more than three months and Sturridge since the Merseyside derby at the beginning of October, making their second-half appearances hugely welcome.
Ibe told the Liverpool Echo: “It was a big lift having the two of them back out there.
“Jordan and Daniel are big figures in the team and hopefully they will get back to form. We all know how important they can be for us on the pitch.
“We’ve got good players coming back in and also Philippe Coutinho is close to being back as well, so hopefully we will climb even higher.
“Anything is possible right now. We will take it game by game and try to do it again on Wednesday.”
Liverpool’s next challenge is a Capital One Cup quarter-final against Southampton at St Mary’s in midweek.
Jürgen Klopp’s team will travel south with confidence given the win over Swansea was their sixth in the last seven fixtures in all competitions.
They were made to work extremely hard for the three points, with the weather conditions particularly prohibitive, but a James Milner penalty proved enough.
Ibe said: “I was just happy with the result and keeping that consistency with three wins on the bounce – hopefully we can make it a fourth.
“Swansea made it hard for us as they got a lot of men behind the ball. Then in the second half they put a lot of crosses into our box, but the back four and goalkeeper defended well.
“The manager didn’t want to focus on any other team, just focus on us and keeping that consistency, keeping winning games and trying to get the three points.
“I was just happy to be on and it was great to win and keep climbing the table. We just need to keep doing well.”