LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Friday, February 6, 2015: Liverpool's Jordon Ibe in action against Everton during the Premier League match at Goodison Park, the 224th Merseyside Derby. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Brendan Rodgers praises Jordon Ibe and “outstanding team effort” in Merseyside derby stalemate

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers described Jordon Ibe as “outstanding” while also applying that tag to his team’s overall performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbpBJqB-kys

“There are a lot of outstanding young talents out there but he’s one who I think can be a big player,” he said of the player signed from Wycombe three years ago.

“He’s tactically very good in the game and you can see his quality in the one-on-ones. He can beat people and he puts a shift in and works.

“He’s only going to get better and stronger so he was absolutely outstanding tonight and it was great to see.”

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Friday, February 6, 2015: Liverpool's Jordon Ibe in action against Everton during the Premier League match at Goodison Park, the 224th Merseyside Derby. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

Referring to his side’s efforts, he added: “We came here and only conceded one shot on target, we just switched towards the end on the counter-attack.

“Apart from that I thought we were outstanding in the game and probably just failed around the edge of the box.

“It was an outstanding team effort and I think the least we deserved was probably a point.”

Everton boss Roberto Martinez felt the need to practice caution against a resurgent Liverpool restricted his team from unleashing their full attacking potential, but he relished the tactical war that unfolded.

The Spaniard said: “It was a good battle between two sides. We were trying to score goals but I thought we were very good defensively.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Friday, February 6, 2015: Liverpool's Philippe Coutinho Correia is fouled by Everton's James McCarthy, who was shown a yellow card for the challenge, during the Premier League match at Goodison Park, the 224th Merseyside Derby. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

“It was a fascinating tactical battle from that point of view and you could see players showing incredible flexibility in their tactical awareness. I really enjoyed that side of things.

“It was unfortunate from our point of view that we had to be a bit cautious with a couple of players coming back from injury, otherwise we could have used the players we had on the bench to our advantage.

“You saw Liverpool take a good shot in the first half and we had two opportunities in the second half that we should have done a little better with.

“All in all, I thought it was one of those games that you really want to analyse and just enjoy.”