Jordan Henderson, MBE: World Club Cup, European Cup, European Super Cup, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup & Charity Shield Winning Captain of Liverpool (and massive sellout)

[Paco]

Dunno what he was doing for that 2nd goal. Should he not have gone to the man in the centre circle instead of Klavan? After that he seemed to be just running alongside them.

[Grinch]

He's not a defensive midfielder. Then again, we have one in the squad that should have retired years ago.

[KMD7]

 

 

lacks true grit

 

[Kevin D]

He escorted their player towards the goal.

Escorts who are paid 90k a week are usually much more aggressive.

[RedKnight]

His abdication of responsibility when he was in key positions was a sight to behold. Why try and drive forward when you can sweep the ball six yards to your right?

[Kevin D]

Which is what I was told, when I was reading the bible.

 

In the library.

 

To starving kids in Africa.

 

Yes, that should do.

[J-V]

He along with, Mignolet, Moreno and Lallana need to be fucked off.  The wages we waste on these shithouses let alone the fees we paid.

[Carvalho Diablo]

How many times during a game does he look sideways or backwards? I'd like to see the bookies odds on how many times a game he does it cost I'd spend a fortune on him doing it. Guaranteed money.

Today we needed Graeme Souness and we got fucking Ray Wilkins.

[El Rojo]

A bigger worry than him being captain and his performances is the manager's faith in him.

[moof]

Today we needed Graeme Souness and we got fucking Ray Wilkins.

At least Ray Wilkins in his current state is too wide for players to breeze past with the ball. He'd be more use as a defensive mid than Hendo.

[The Golden Eel]

I'd prefer he was fucked off this summer as well but it's not going to happen sadly.

 

Still can't quite believe he was made captain.

He managed to hoodwink his way to it by celebrating vociferously when he's scored the fourth goal in a 5-0 win a few times. Something like that anyway

[Jairzinho]

He managed to hoodwink his way to it by celebrating vociferously when he's scored the fourth goal in a 5-0 win a few times. Something like that anyway

He also once looked at Costa.

[Kevin D]

He managed to hoodwink his way to it by celebrating vociferously when he's scored the fourth goal in a 5-0 win a few times. Something like that anyway

You're forgetting when he stared at Costa.

 

That elicited great awe.

[Bruce Spanner]

A bigger worry than him being captain and his performances is the manager's faith in him.

Or his lack of viable alternatives?

[TheResonator]

We needed a leader out there this afternoon when things weren't going for us: somebody who could drive the team on or try to make something happen themselves. As is the case so often when we find ourselves in such a situation, Henderson was conspicuous by his absence.

 

He was a complete non-entity on the pitch today. He was deployed in a deep-lying position but didn't play a single noteworthy forward pass. He isn't particularly good in terms of tackling or defensive positioning, either, so I do really struggle to see what he brings to the side in such a role.

 

All of his best performances for us have come when he is playing box-to-box, although I would caveat that by saying that - although he has shown glimpses of talent - they have been largely unremarkable. I actually think the captaincy is bad for him. He doesn't look to me like he has the confidence in himself to offer the necessary leadership and he often seems painfully aware of that fact, retreating from the spotlight and cloaking himself in a web of sideways passes.

 

It is equally telling, though, that if you were going to strip him of the captaincy, there would be no clear candidate to give it to. Coutinho is probably our most talented player but is moody and shy, Lovren is only just starting to put together a bit of form, Klavan is new, Mignolet is afraid of his own shadow, Sakho has had issues off the field... I genuinely couldn't pick out a single person who has the requisite bottle, quality and consistency to merit the armband, and that is a real problem for us.

 

It is a shame for Hendo because he is quite likeable and there is clearly a good footballer in there. If the pressure was off him and there were a few in the moulds of Suarez/Stevie/Mascherano... even Reina around him then we would probably see a different player. But when he is asked to shoulder the level of responsibility that he has been in the last couple of seasons, he just crumbles. And, unfortunately, that clearly feeds in to the team. Watching us either collapse (ala Sevilla, Sunderland, Southampton, etc. etc.) or come close to it (Arsenal) has become a frighteningly routine occurrence. The total lack of leadership on the pitch week after week is surely a huge contributor to that.

[ZonkoVille77]

I admire those that spend time typing out large paragraphs about shithouses like Hendo. Fair play. I'd just rather a simple line like below. More effective.

 

He's fuckin shite

[El Rojo]

Or his lack of viable alternatives?

He and others at the club should have prioritised finding at least one alternative for the centre of midfield this window.

[VladimirIlyich]

Far from our biggest problem at the club.

[Jairzinho]

The way that we have gutted the squad of players with anything approaching the right type of mentality to be a captain in such a short space of time is quite impressive.

[King Emlyn]

Far from our biggest problem at the club.

Given that he's our captain playing in a pivotal position and allied with the fact that he's a bit shit I don't think he's that far from being our biggest problem to be fair

[Joe Strummer]

Would be for his own benefit and performance to have the captaincy stripped. The worrying thing is the alternative options.

[TheHowieLama]

He also once looked at Costa.

 

 

You're forgetting when he stared at Costa.

 

 

 

 

That was great - when he aggressively monitored him.

[Gnasher]

Far from our biggest problem at the club.

I don't know, as captain I'd place him no lower than 1st.

[billypilgrimnz]

The problem is that we shouldn't just be looking at the captain to provide leadership and steel. Our squad is dominated by wan, flighty, inconsistent players whose technique utterly fails them when the opposition start to put up a fight.

[TSC]

Just scrap the captaincy.  What does a captain supposedly do in football these days?  Are they supposed to motivate a load of players who may be earning £5m per season compared to their £3m?  Good luck with that.  That only works when you've got a right hard case/nut job as captain who can basically intimidate aka Roy Keane or going back to the glory days for us Souness.  Gerrard wasn't a shrinking violet either and could actually inspire by example as technically he was excellent. 

 

Henderson ticks neither box.