Brendan Rodgers praised the mental strength of Luis Suarez as the striker scored twice on his long-awaited Premier League return.
Suarez's brace and a fortuitous opener from Daniel Sturridge secured all three points for Liverpool at managerless Sunderland - who pulled one back through Emanuele Giaccherini - moving the Reds up to second in the table.
It was the Uruguayan's first league outing since getting hit with a ten-match ban for biting Branislav Ivanovic in April and Rodgers was hugely impressed with the star.
"He is not fazed by much. He has a remarkable mentality," Rodgers said. "His determination, the steel in his mindset, is phenomenal.
"He is just so focused and for us, he is like a new signing, really, coming back into the team.
"Our supporters deserve to see someone of that quality, but his talent deserves to be out on the field rather than sitting in the stand, and that's something that we are working very hard in order to make sure that happens this season."
Suarez's double may have sealed the win but it was Sturridge who set the Reds on their way, bundling Steven Gerrard's cross over the line with his arm in the 28th minute.
Rodgers said with a smile: "He needs to work on his heading, I think. He meant to head it and it missed his head and hit his arm and went in, and if you watch it again, if you look at the reaction of the Sunderland players, there's not one reacted to it being handball."
Despite the defeat, Sunderland's interim boss Kevin Ball was able to take positives from the game.
He said: "I'd be a fool if I hadn't been encouraged by [the performance]. Yes, they would have liked to have got a result today, but it definitely wasn't for the want of trying."
Source: Metro
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