Jordan Henderson: Good but not Great
If there’s one thing I have learnt about Jordan Henderson this season, it would have to be that Jordan Henderson is a good player. Not great by any means, but a good player.
He’s a player that perhaps stirs up the most debate in terms of his ability from this very inconsistent Liverpool side (perhaps with the exception of Andy Carroll, but I won’t talk about that now). Conclusions cannot be drawn following a season in Red for the now-ex English U21 captain, with performances that have as I would describe, not being above par, not below, but quite simply at par.
Question marks will still continue to be raised as next season comes along, with Henderson still not quite justifying his 15 million pound price tag. He looks like a very technically gifted player, but with all this technical ability, he is lacking in terms of mental strength. He himself sees this as a weakness in his game, as he has actually come out and said that he hasn’t been adventurous or quite simply inspirational enough on the ball park.
Sometimes I need to take more risks going forward. I definitely think I need to do that in games; look for the runners and give it quickly, those little balls through; create a chance for someone. At times I can be a little bit safe but I know with hard work and listening, I’ll get better.
Jordan Henderson told the LFC Magazine a few months back
A lot of Italian terminologies come about when describing football positions. From the libero to the tranquesta, the Italians have coined up quite a few, but I don’t think that there isn’t quite one for Henderson. The thing is, he has a bit of all the attributes of a central midfielder.
What I mean is that he has a bit of the attributes of being a defensive midfielder, box-to-box midfielder, playmaker and an attacking midfielder. He chases people down, he can pick out passes (although Liverpool fans would have certainly hoped that he could pick out any pass apart from a square pass) and he has the dribbling ability as well.
But, he doesn’t have a specific role that suits him best.
Henderson is the type of player who will get stuck in and he can win them balls with his game intelligence. He is a technically good, but quite simply, he is not spectacular. He is quite simply much like a B grade student in college. Practices all the challenges that would come his way, but he can’t quite piece the jigsaw puzzle together sometimes.
At 21, he has a lot of time. And quite frankly, I’m tired of Liverpool fans giving him the same stick that they gave good old Lucas Leiva in his first two years as a red. He’s turned out to be a classy central defensive midfielder and our season falling apart just at the turn of the New Year (about the time that the Brazilian got injured) is testament to how much this Liverpool side are missing him at the moment.
Give him time. Give him support. He could just be the best long term investment Liverpool have made by a long shot. He just so happens to be the defending champions in the 188BET Skills Challenge, beating Suarez, Coates, Shelvey, Skrtel and Stewart Downing. Although the crossbar challenge in both of the skills challenges perhaps give insight as to why Liverpool have hit the post so many times this season.
Strikers
Players ran wild, fans went ballistic and Kenny Dalglish ecstatic as the Steven Gerrard picked up the Carling Cup trophy and lifted it up in jubilation. It had been a long time coming, and it was indeed the piece of silverware touted as the signal of intent from Kenny Dalglish and his players. A trophy that will spur Liverpool on to 4th place, and hopefully the FA Cup.
Fast forward a few weeks, and it’s a different story. Instead of the charge for fourth place and the Champions League places, the Reds have somewhat fallen flat. And it seems that the Carling Cup has struck once again. Liverpool FC are in absolute disarray. It’s hard to lie to ourselves anymore. Six defeats in 7 league games is testament to the Liverpool collapse since our return to Wembley for the first time since it was renovated.
I’ll start off with our debut boy from the game, Raheem Sterling. To me, he showed me everything that he needed to show. He showed me that he had the ability to get past his man with a dribble, the stamina to burst forward with lots of attacking runs and the drive to close down opponents when the reds were pressing. To me, Sterling’s performance deserves more minutes this season, and I realistically don’t mind the reds taking a gamble and giving the young lad more minutes with the current state of affairs at Liverpool.
A fantastic ball winner, and in light of his long absence, it is easy to forget how important this little lad with a big heart is to Liverpool FC. He simply covers so much grass over the course over the 90 minutes. Furthermore, his distribution and dribbling ability was consistently getting better, hence it was a bitter blow for Liverpool FC fans and players alike when the Brazilian suffered from a anterior cruciate ligament injury following his collision with Chelsea’s Mata in their Carling Cup encounter.
