Liverpool boss, Brendan Rodgers, has hailed the performance of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Stewart-Downing-c34221 on Saturday night in the Reds 4-0 win over Fulham an Anfield.
The English International has remained the subject of severe criticism over his innocuous presence in the team since his 20 million pounds move to Merseyside in the summer of 2011.
Consequently, he recently emerged in rumours of a possible exit from Anfield in January, with Rodgers having given permission to the forward to seek a career elsewhere.
However, the 28-year old responded to his critics in an emphatic manner on Saturday, setting up a goal for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Steven-Gerrard-c34196 before getting on the scoresheet himself just after the break – his first Premier League scalp for the Reds.
After witnessing Downing fail to make an impression in the frontline, Rodgers altered the position of the player, now utilizing him in the left-back role.
Nonetheless, the Northern Irishman was all praise for the English footballer following http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Liverpool-c39809’s commanding win over the Cottagers.
The former Swansea City boss said that instead of being let down by his troubled start to the campaign, the forward has displayed remarkable hunger to reclaim his spot in the team.
He also stated that if the player continues to perform like this, there would be no reason to sell him in January.
“I thought he was brilliant today in every aspect of the game,” the manager said after the match.
“He’s in his late 20s, an England international a few years ago and he wasn’t playing so we spoke about how he could get into the team and if he wasn’t playing then we would’ve looked at it in January.”
“I think his reaction from that moment - like it has been for Jose Enrique and one or two of the others - has been outstanding. His goal today was a fantastic strike.”
Downing has thus far made 67 appearances for the Merseyside club, finding the back of the net 5 times during this period. Besides that, he has also got 34 international caps to his name for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749, but is currently not a part of Roy Hodgson’s 24-man contingent
for the World Cup Qualifiers.
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