Rodgers Praises Cole as Midfielder Looks To Save his Liverpool Career

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has praised the performance of Joe Cole who is quite literally playing to save his Anfield career.

The former Chelsea midfielder was heavily criticised by his manager after his last outing in the Europa League as Rodgers hauled him off at half-time before suggesting that he was ready to sell Cole in January.

However, his display in the 2-2 draw with Young Boys on Thursday may well have gone some way to convince the Northern Irishman that he can yet make an impact in the Liverpool first team.

"Joe gave everything," Rodgers told the official Liverpool website. "It was a terrific pass to set up Shelvey for the first goal we got, and then obviously he gets his finish in the second.

"He's still not 100 per cent because [he hasn't had] the games but he was much better in the offensive part of his game. He was bright, he was clever in between people.

"That's the nature of the guys at the top end of the field. They've got to create and score goals. Jonjo and Joe did that."

Cole put in arguably his best performance in a Liverpool shirt as he set up Shelvey for the first goal before scoring his first goal for the club since April 2011.

It was not just Cole that impressed his manager as Shelvey also came in for plenty of praise as he was asked to play as a forward.

"Young Jonjo in that false nine role did extremely well, and then we moved him back into midfield," added Rodgers.

"He was causing them problems floating in between the lines and that opened up spaces centrally for others to go in. We scored one in the first half and could maybe have had three because of his movement."