Liverpool 5-0 Norwich: Steven Gerrard claims Jordan Henderson deserves first-team place

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard believes team mate Jordan Henderson deserves his place in the Reds starting line-up after a solid run of performances in the side culminating in the former Sunderland man scoring the first goal in Saturday's rout of Norwich. 

Henderson has struggled for form since his arrival from the North East in the summer of 2011, but has seen much more football in recent months due to a string of impressive performances topped off with his first Premier League goal of the season for the Reds against Norwich at Anfield on Saturday. 

The England Under-21's skipper opened the scoring before Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge, Steven Gerrard and an own goal from Ryan Bennett sealed a third successive win at Anfield for Brendan Rodgers side as the Reds look to build some momentum going into the next to Premier League games away to Arsenal and Manchester City.

Talking on Goals on Sunday after the game, Gerrard was quick to praise Henderson for his resurgent form: "In the last couple of months he has been superb. He works hard every day and he is a great lad. I am really pleased for him." Gerrard stated.

"I think he has grown week by week. He has had a difficult start to his career here but I think people forget his age. He's still a young lad - he's 22. He's made a huge move from his hometown club to Liverpool.

"There's been big expectation and so he has found it difficult to settle. But I think of late, he certainly deserves to be in the starting XI and his strike against Norwich was right out of the top drawer.

The England captain also praised new signing Daniel Sturridge on how well he has adapted to life on Merseyside, with the former Chelsea striker having scored one in all of his first three games, making him the first player to do so for Liverpool since Ray Kennedy in the early seventies. 

"In terms of his [Sturridge] partnership with Suarez, as a manager, you say to Luis: "Go and play." You don't tell him where to go and play. He goes everywhere, he goes wide, he comes out of the box, he drifts into the box - he's just a great player." Gerrard claimed.

"The start of this partnership between him and Daniel came last week in the second half against Manchester United. I think everyone saw then that there was an instant understanding between the two.