JORDAN HENDERSON believes he has become a better midfielder from working on the training ground with Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers.

The 22-year-old England international was handed his first Premier League start of the season in Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Swansea City.

Henderson relished the opportunity and is hoping to retain his place for tomorrow night’s trip to Tottenham.

It’s been a tough start to the campaign for the £16million man, who only missed one league game in the whole of last season.

Prior to Sunday, he had made just five substitute appearances this term but dropping down the pecking order only made him more determined to improve and force his way into Rodgers’ plans.

“Sunday was my chance to get my first start and I was happy with the way things went,” said Henderson.

“Defensively, I thought I was solid and did what the manager asked. I worked hard and tried to get forward as much as I could but in the final third I need to get better.

“The manager has helped me a lot with my game and I can definitely see improvements, especially tactically, which the manager is always on about.

“I can see that when I am watching games back. When I am in games I feel a lot more confident, so I can definitely see improvements.

“Not playing gave me an extra incentive to really push on and prove I can play in the league. I think the manager has seen that I have improved since he came into the club and I need to keep doing that.

“I think anybody my age is still learning the game. I still have a lot of things to work on. I have to keep working hard and believing in myself and then hopefully I will get more chances.

“When I signed for Liverpool I definitely wanted it to be long term and I still do. I signed a four year contract and I will do my best every time I put the shirt on. I will give it everything I have got.”

Despite the frustration of only taking a point from the game against Swansea, Henderson believes an eight-game unbeaten league run shows that Rodgers’ side are making progress.

The former Sunderland midfielder says the Reds will head for Spurs confident of extending that sequence.

“Defensively, we were very good at Swansea and we had a lot of chances, especially in the first half, to put the game away but didn’t manage to do so,” he added.

“The game plan worked, but we just need to be more clinical and make sure we finish teams off.

“Everybody has taken on board what the manager wants really well and I think over the last few weeks we have seen improvements so we will look forward to Wednesday.

“I can definitely see the confidence and the togetherness growing and I definitely think we can keep getting higher in the league.

“Spurs are a good side but we are confident we can go there and get a good result.”