Liverpool FC Forum

Henderson is a decent enough premiership player. Is he anything special? Personally don't think so. Has improved since coming to us but I don't think his ceiling is that high in terms of development. Would love to be proved wrong though

Our whole approach seems to grind to a halt whenever he receives the ball. Rarely will he look to pass forwards. I have a horrid feeling that BR sees him as the next Gerrard and will build the team around his engine. Thing is, it's a slow engine, built for endurance, or marathon running if you will. I think he has a place at the club, but a first teamer? Alongside Gerrard, Lucas or Allen? No wonder we have no pace or mobility.
We're stuck this way until January though. Maybe longer. I'm not sure BR will have much money to work with, not am I sure he'd know how to spend it anyway.

unfortunately he is perceived as the new "Golden Boy" ,get's a lot of press ,got the vice-captain ,England player....We are stuck with him. Not that he is a bad player but he isn't as good as we need him to be.

The silence is deafening.......

He is the sort of player who can’t be guaranteed a first team spot if we really want to take a step forward and mix it with the big boys on a regular basis. I think the vice captaincy has had negative effect on him and he now seems to spend more time getting into arguments with the opposition and screaming at the ref than concentrating on what’s going on. And is he really our best freekick tacker?

Put it this way, if City of Chelsea were needed a first choice CM and Henderson had a £20 mil release clause, would they even consider him? No.

Clearly teachers pet but we all know Henderson is the wrong choice.

Skrtel or Sturridge both ahead of him from the outside looking in.

Good lad Hendo, hard working and reliable but an ordinary footballer and to captain Liverpool
you need more than that.

I like Henderson. Strong, tall , bags of stamina and has passion dripping from him. But most weeks we watch him snatch at a shot and blast one into the stands. For example, against chelsea, where in injury time he put a header off target which would have brought us back into that match. To me he just doesn't have the natural ability for that position. Watching Can play, it is clear we have a world class talent in the cm position, potentially the new javi Martinez/ Gundogan or schweinsteiger. It would be a waste not to bring him into this position by at latest next season. The formation we are playing only allows two central mid players. 1 destroyer and 1 box to box player. Could Henderson become our new destroyer is the question I am asking? He has the physical attributes for it and would allow can to move up into cm. We would obviously need a new right sided centre back (Subotic, garay?) but I think it would maximise our potential as a squad.

Long story short: should Henderson be trained into Lucas' position to allow can to move into cm in our 3-4-3 formation?

The biggest question here is why the new thread and simply not put in the already made Jordan Henderson thread?

LFC1990 » Thu Feb 05, 2015 10:49 am wrote:The biggest question here is why the new thread and simply not put in the already made Jordan Henderson thread?

Exactly this !!! 

You can find the thread here liverpool-fc-forum/jordan-henderson-official-thread-t29084.html

Threads now merged   

Written by Liverpoolfc.com contributor, Melissa Reddy.

Jordan Henderson has covered quite some distance since dropping his shorts on Soccer AM's Skill Skool in 2008 to reveal a pair of underpants with 'wow' scribbled on them as the climax to a ball-juggling trick. He cringes at the recollection: "We quickly had to come up with a few things that would make it more fun and entertaining," the Liverpool midfielder says. "I'm using young and stupid as my excuse."

That footage also serves as a reminder of how different it could have all turned out. Nathan Luscombe, a year Henderson's senior at Sunderland's Academy of Light, was victorious in the TV challenge. He is now registered to Celtic Nation in the First Division of the Northern League. "When you're young, no one really knows what's going to happen and how far you're going to get," Henderson, 24, adds.

That was certainly the case with Henderson, who could line up in Liverpool's midfield for the Merseyside derby today, having become a fixture in the team despite a rocky start to life Anfield: question marks have dogged him.

Could he secure a football career despite suffering from Osgood-Schlatters, a growing pains condition requiring regular treatment? Was the sport the correct choice for someone who excelled at badminton and table tennis? Could he justify the £20m fee Liverpool paid Sunderland for him? Does he really run from his knees, as Sir Alex Ferguson said?

"When it's not going so well, I keep myself away from all the coverage and focus on what I need to do to fix what's wrong," he says when we meet at Melwood after training. "When you go through difficult moments, it is very hard to see through it, but it's important that you do and it comes down to mental strength, where you force yourself to look beyond what's happening now to what you want to happen.

"At the same time, when things are good and people are putting you up on a pedestal, you've got to close yourself off from that and continue concentrating on what you need to achieve."

"Smaller and skinnier" than the other hopefuls at the Academy of Light, as its manager Ged McNamee recalled in 2011, Henderson always had to dig deeper, to show more. "He's just a smashing lad with bags of natural ability and a strong work ethic," says McNamee. "He'll always keep going and will always give you 100 per cent."

That assiduousness has ensured Henderson survived football's fascination with finding fault, especially in his early days at Liverpool. "You have to fight things like doubt and believe that all the work you do will help push you on, that's when you have to give extra - not give up.

"With the criticism, you can't take it too personally. People will always have opinions, you just have to remember who you are, what you've sacrificed and what you're working to achieve."

It is this tunnel vision that helped Henderson cope when his father was diagnosed with cancer last year. The revelation came with a request from his dad: "Try to be man of the match in every game you play." He was exactly that in four of the next five fixtures. "I wouldn't trade the downs and going through all the tough stuff, because it shapes you into a more steely person," he says.

When Brendan Rodgers took over at Liverpool, the manager was uncertain what Henderson could offer but now says he is the "moral compass of the group".

Henderson says of Rodgers: "He's been huge for me, both personally and for my career. On the pitch, he has sharpened me tactically, and off it, he's helped me so much. He was so good to me and my family when my dad was having surgery and he doesn't just manage players in a football sense, it's more than that. Even when it comes to things like leadership abilities, he's quick to spot it and work with you on improving."

Rodgers refers to Henderson as "a sponge who never tires of soaking up information" - he has sessions with Chris Davies, Liverpool's head of opposition analysis, after every game to go through what he's done well and where he can improve. It is no surprise, then, that regardless of the system Rodgers chooses, Henderson plays. He has operated in a variety of roles across midfield, as a wing-back or a more traditional right full-back, as well as in the hole.

"I'm much more rounded when it comes to positional and tactical awareness," Henderson says. "I've matured a lot as a footballer from being versatile and understanding how the game operates from different roles. Whatever position I play, I make sure I know everything that is needed from me and, when you've been used in so many, you automatically know if you're attacking centrally what the wide player on the right needs - for example, as you've played in both. I think I've fitted into different roles well and adjusted to different systems."

Source: The Independent

Henderson is not good enough to be great, he is just about good enough to be good. He does some things well, and other things very badly.
He should never have got involved with Naismith yesterday and needs to man up if he wants to be taken seriously as a future captain

As regards to Henderson being future captain:

Rodgers also offered his views on Henderson's credentials to succeed Gerrard as Liverpool captain, with his suggestion that the deputy skipper is not a certainty to take over when the Anfield icon join LA Galaxy in July suggestion no decision has been made on the position.

"People see Jordan as that automatic next captain but that is not necessarily the case," added Rodgers. "He is a young player and you have to go steady with Jordan. Everyone is trying to catapult him into the next Steven Gerrard and he is not that.

"I have said it many times he is not that type of player. Jordan is a real honest boy, a hard-working player, a great team player. Steven is a totally different player to that.

"He [Henderson] is still young, but it is not automatic he will be the next captain but at this moment in time, when Steven doesn't play, he is working that role very well."

I think it is abit tough on Henderson but the manager's got it right not to make an automatic decision...

maguskwt » Sat Feb 21, 2015 8:49 am wrote:As regards to Henderson being future captain:

Rodgers also offered his views on Henderson's credentials to succeed Gerrard as Liverpool captain, with his suggestion that the deputy skipper is not a certainty to take over when the Anfield icon join LA Galaxy in July suggestion no decision has been made on the position.

"People see Jordan as that automatic next captain but that is not necessarily the case," added Rodgers. "He is a young player and you have to go steady with Jordan. Everyone is trying to catapult him into the next Steven Gerrard and he is not that.

"I have said it many times he is not that type of player. Jordan is a real honest boy, a hard-working player, a great team player. Steven is a totally different player to that.

"He [Henderson] is still young, but it is not automatic he will be the next captain but at this moment in time, when Steven doesn't play, he is working that role very well."

I think it is abit tough on Henderson but the manager's got it right not to make an automatic decision...

I am really glad to read this tbh, i don't think he is anywhere near ready, that incident with Mario showed that the other night

If you look at the current squad you could possibly consider these for immediate captaincy.... Skrtel, Sakho, Lallana, Sturridge

And to be fair of the 4 i have named there none of them really stand out as ready, perhaps Skrtel ?

Unless the manager is bringing in someone new in the summer who will fill this role

Yeah but there's also no need to open yer mouth in public every time and make the player feel like a useless tw@t either.

Henderson's clearly not the brightest light on the Christmas tree and appears to have zero character about him however I'd  expect the manager to keep this kind of analysis to himself as making it public serves no purpose whatsoever.