OPINION
There aren’t many players in English football who have divided opinion quite as much as Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson.
The former Sunderland man was derided initially when he moved to Anfield, but has worked hard to assert himself as Steven Gerrard’s successor and the heartbeat of Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Still he has his doubters, though. However, after Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Bournemouth, even talkSPORT’s famously hard-to-please presenter Adrian Durham was singing his praises.
“He was world class, simple as that,” he said on talkSPORT [09/12; 16:50]. “I know Bournemouth aren’t brilliant, but he was incredible. He was everywhere.”
Now, it’s rare that anyone says this, but Durham absolutely nailed it there. He was 100% spot on to laud Henderson for what really was a top class display against the Cherries.
He played a fantastic pass for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s goal, while he filled in superbly defensively and even ended up playing at centre back towards the end of the game.
The statistics show just how dominant the England international was on Saturday. As per WhoScored.com, Henderson had a shot – on target – two key passes and one successful dribble.
He also played a humungous 151 passes, a colossal 33 more than the next highest tally recorded by Joe Gomez. That he did so with a success rate of 92.7% is quite astonishing. Furthermore, he also made two tackles, one interception and one clearance.
This was an all-round performance of the highest order, and should be commended. The fact that Durham, the arch contrarian of sports broadcasting, delivered such a gushing assessment of Henderson’s display tells you all you need to know about how good he was.
Let’s give ‘Hendo’ the credit he deserves, there’s no doubt that he’s earned it by now.
