Liverpool won the FA Cup and League Cup but their hopes of an unprecedented quadruple were dashed within the space of a week when they were pipped to the Premier League title by Manchester City before losing 1-0 to Real Madrid in the European Cup final. But Henderson is confident Liverpool will bounce back quickly from the disappointment like they have managed in previous campaigns. Liverpool lost the Champions League final to Real Madrid in 2018 but responded by winning the competition the following season and romped to a first Premier League title in 2020 12 months after narrowly missing out to City. “There’s no need for that – we have had disappointments in the past and we didn’t have hangovers so we have always reacted in the right way,” the Liverpool captain said on the club’s pre-season tour of Bangkok. “We still won two trophies last year so it’s not all negative, there were still positives to take out of it. “It was a fantastic season. Yes, it didn’t end the way we would have liked but that’s football, that’s life, you get on with it and react in the right way and we just want to go again. “I wouldn’t say it has made us more motivated but you are always motivated to win the biggest trophies. That is why we play. We want to be successful. We want to win things and we managed to win two last year. It didn’t end the way we would like in the other two but we pushed all the way and that is all you can ask for so you move on, you take the positives and improve on the things we can improve on. We have done that for a long period of time and now we just have to keep going, keep pushing.” Liverpool have brought in Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez in a club record £85 million deal from Benfica this summer and tied Mohamed Salah to a new contract but lost Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich. Henderson admits Mane’s departure is a “big blow” but believes they have the attacking options in Salah, Nunez, Luis Diaz, Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota to compensate for the loss of the Senegal forward. “Any team that loses Sadio it will be a big blow because he is world class player, for me one of the best forwards in the world, so it’s always going to be difficult losing him,” Henderson said. “But at the same time – we’ve got world class players, especially in the forward line: Luis Diaz, who performed phenomenally well [last season]. Darwin coming in, Bobby’s coming back, so we’ve got world class options. And things move on, change, hopefully we can adapt to that quickly. “Sadio would be a big miss for anybody. We are sad to see him leave but we wish him all the best. For us, you look at the forward line and it’s still very, very strong. Bobby coming back is a big bonus for us, he was injured for a large part of last season. We have plenty of options for sure, and hopefully we can produce as we have over the last few years. “Darwin gives us a different option for sure, in the way he plays. He’s settling in really well.”
