Toon were worth the toil for Enrique

LIVERPOOL defender Jose Enrique comes up against former club Newcastle tonight insisting he paid his dues to the Magpies with a spell in the npower Championship.

The Spaniard had four good years in the north east, one of which was spent in the second tier of English football after relegation in 2009.

On their return to the top flight he had one further season with them before, having criticised the club’s lack of ambition after they sold key players, he departed to Anfield this summer in a £6 million deal.

Having watched the likes of Andy Carroll — now his Liverpool team-mate — and Kevin Nolan leave, he spoke out about the lack of investment at Newcastle.

But while Carroll, a former Geordie hero, is certain to come in for abuse, Enrique is likely to go largely ignored.

“I hope they (the fans) understand,” said the 25-year-old. “I gave 100% and no-one can say anything different.

“I played in the Championship for them when they dropped down because I thought it was my mistake too.

“I had some very good moments there. I wish them the best because they have amazing fans there and it is an amazing city.

“But you cannot say no when a team like Liverpool comes for you. We are maybe not in the best position now but it is one of the best teams in Europe.”

Enrique has settled in well at Liverpool, starting every Barclays Premier League match, but he still thinks fondly of his time on Tyneside.

And he is pleased with the way his former club have proved their doubters wrong this season, sitting just a point behind the sixth-placed Reds.

“I still love Newcastle and I think all my life I will love them but I play for Liverpool now and I hope I can get three points because that is more important,” he added.

“They sold a lot of players — myself, Andy, Kevin Nolan — and when you do that the team normally drops a little but they are doing really well.

“They have signed players like Demba Ba and he is on fire at the moment, he is amazing.

“They are doing really well and I am happy for them. It is special [to play against Newcastle].”

The lure of Anfield proved too great for Enrique and he now hopes to be part of the renaissance begun under Kenny Dalglish.

“I think we can do better, I think we can be in the Champions League positions,” he added. “But the league is so hard because Manchester City and Manchester United are better than us.

“I think in the summer we started to sign players again and spend a lot of money and I think this club in the future will become one of the best again.

“I really enjoy it here because it is easy to play with the players that are here: players like Maxi Rodriguez, Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez.

“When you have players like that around you it is easy to play with them and I really enjoy it. I am happy here.”

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has not been tempted to try something out of the ordinary in an attempt to rouse his side from their goalscoring slumbers.

The Reds have scored just 21 goals in 17 Barclays Premier League matches and that has cost them dear, particularly at Anfield where they have drawn six of nine matches.

Even bottom side Blackburn left with a point on St Stephen’s Day despite having just one shot on target, conceding masses of possession and relying on Charlie Adam to score an own goal to put them in front.

Dalglish’s and the players’ frustration is that the team is playing more than well enough, right up until they get in front of goal.

They will be tested again tonight but the Reds boss will send out his players with exactly the same instructions as before.

“If you want to be really positive you could say we are undefeated at home but we’ve said before we don’t want to set our standards that low,” the Scot said.

“We want to be winning our home games as often as we possibly can and we’ve certainly given ourselves opportunities to have won every home game.We haven’t done that but we will keep going and we believe we will do.

“I suppose every change you make can be termed drastic; we have changed formations, we’ve changed players, but the one thing we won’t change is our philosophy so we’ll keep going with that.”

Despite dropping 12 points at home, Liverpool are still only one win away from fourth-placed Chelsea. They face Newcastle, just a point below them, without striker Luis Suarez as he serves a one-match ban, but are likely to have captain Steven Gerrard in the squad again.

The England international made his return from a two-month injury lay-off with 21 minutes against Blackburn and will continue to step up his comeback against the Magpies.