Summer signing Adam Lallana has spoken to the Daily Mirror about making the move from Southampton and his early struggles on Merseyside claiming that he was trying too hard.
In his last two matches however the 26-year-old has shown glimpses of why manager Brendan Rodgers paid £25 million for him.
“I never thought it was going to be easy coming to a club as big as this,” he said.
“Maybe parts of me wanted to do too well, trying too hard – just a combination of little things. But I’m getting there. I’m feeling more relaxed and a relaxed Adam Lallana on the pitch is when I’m at my best.
“We’re playing a system I feel comfortable in and in the last fortnight we’ve produced some performances, which is massive for us.”
The England international was not helped by a Knee injury sustained while on the Reds pre-season tour of the United States after which kept him out of the side for a while making it even more difficult to settle in, and when asked if he was disappointed at all said: “Not at all.”
“You’re going to have highs and lows in your career and I never thought it was going to be easy here. But when you play in an ¬atmosphere like we did against Arsenal, you know this is a special place.”
Lallana even gave credit to Brendan Rodgers for finding a way to make the team gel with his new 3-4-3 formation that sees Raheem Sterling playing as a false number nine.
“I’ve been impressed by the way the manager has been looking for different solutions,” he added. “He’s looking for the system to suit the personnel we’ve got and over the last couple of games I think we’ve found it and that’s credit to him.”
At least now Liverpool have some hope as they travel to Burnley today, and Lallana insists that they can still finish the season well.
“It’s important we just take it game by game,” he said. “We’re in the semi-finals of a cup competition and for someone like me, who came from a great club like Southampton to Liverpool, I wanted to win silverware and straight away we’re in the semis.”
