Kolo Toure was full of praise for summer signings Lazar Markovic and Adam Lallana following the Reds 3-1 win at Bournemouth.
Liverpool booked a Capital One Cup semi final with Chelsea to ease the pressure on Brendan Rodgers, in a game which saw both Markovic and Lallana impress.
20-year-old Markovic scored his first goal for the club, whilst Lallana provided an assist for Raheem Sterling and looked the Reds most creative player in an advanced role.
Toure said: “I am very proud of Markovic.
“Since he came here, he hasn’t had a lot of chances to play but he’s shown great character and worked hard in training. He is a great boy, works hard, is very quick and technically is very, very good.”
“We are very happy [with everyone’s performance],” he continued. “But, for me, Adam has been the best player in this Liverpool team this year. Definitely.”
On a night of many positives for Liverpool, it was Raheem Sterling who picked up the man of the match award following his two goals.
“He is a fantastic boy and a fantastic player,” said the Ivorian. “He is playing in a different position, which is not easy to adapt to in two games, but he scored twice.
“We will see a lot to come from him because he is a great player and a great boy as well, very intelligent.
“It was a good game and we played against a really good side. We showed character after the loss [against Manchester United]. It was important we won this game. We did that, and we are really happy.
“[Possession] is the strength of Liverpool. We keep the ball really well, but this season we haven’t been doing that very well, and that’s why I think we have struggled. But when we play like that, I think we are amazing because we have an offensive team and we need to keep the ball – we can’t give it away all the time.
“We did it very well against Bournemouth and we have to carry on like that.”
