The Reds boss admitted he was proud of his players after they put two consecutive away defeats behind them to rise back into the Champions League places at the expense of Everton

Brendan Rodgers has hailed Liverpool’s win over Hull City as his side’s best of the campaign as they climbed back into the Premier League top four.

A Daniel Agger header and a free kick from Luis Suarez sealed a 2-0 win over the Tigers at Anfield, and manager Rodgers was pleased with the way his side repsonded to defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea over the festive period.

“I said to the players afterwards that I thought that was our best win of the season,” he told reporters.

“I think in a lot of games we’ve been vibrant with a lot of energy and scored a lot of goals, but on the back of the games we’ve had over this period, to play with a lot of the same players against a team that won their last game 6-0, we knew we were going to have to tough it out.

“There were two great goals, we had other opportunities and restricted Hull to no shots on target, so I was very, very pleased with today.”

The former Swansea boss also heaped praise on goalscorer Suarez after he played through the pain of an injury to register his 20th goal of what is proving to be an incredible season for the Uruguay forward.

“I thought today was very much about the team, though Luis will always get the plaudits as he’s a world class player,” he added.

“Nine out of ten players wouldn’t have played today. He had a real bad knock on the top of his foot from the Chelsea game, and I know having managed players that most wouldn’t have played with what he had today.

“He had a big strapping on it and put himself out there for the team once again. That’s why he gets the goals that he does because he’s so determined.”

Meanwhile Hull boss Steve Bruce admitted his side were tired after playing their third match in six days, and felt they didn’t quite have the energy to compete with the hosts.

“You could see towards the end, though we were game enough to keep trying, that there were a lot of tired bodies in our team. The third game in six days was a bit too much for us,” he said.

“The disappointing thing for me was that the game was settled by two set-pieces. It was a big ask for us today and to get a result for a club like ours you have to be right at it.

“You have to be fresh and unfortunately it was bit too much for us.”