Our captain: Jordan Henderson, since signing from Sunderland in 2011 for the Reds, has divided the supporters on whether he is good enough to be captain of our club. Ever since obtaining the role as captain after our club hero Steven Gerrard left for L.A Galaxy in the MLS, he is one of the hot topics ever since getting the vice-captaincy in 2014 when Daniel Agger left the club.
Following the likes of Gerrard in such a club as Liverpool is an enormous challenge and you simply have to credit him for taking up the role, especially since Brendan Rodgers said he could leave for Fulham if he wanted to several seasons earlier in 2012, yet he turned down the move to stay and prove himself at the club. After all who would want to go to leave Liverpool for Fulham?
In recent matches, the debate has resurfaced with Henderson not putting in those key performances that we need from our captain and leader on the pitch. Personally, I can see that there are convincing arguments for and against Henderson being in the team and the fact that our midfield could be fielded without him in it is a worrying sign for Henderson.
Players such as Emre Can and Georginio Wijnaldum have shown to be quite formidable in the centre of the park. This is a worrying sign for Henderson with the new signing of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain from Arsenal and Philippe Coutinho failing to move to Barcelona means that there is plenty of healthy competition in the midfield to support our heavily attacking and pressing style of play.
So where does this leave Henderson? A 73% and 56% tackle success rate over the last two years shows that he doesn’t shy away from the defensive duties of the team and supports our fragile defence, he also has the most forward passes in the team to support the theory that he is a box to box midfielder. His stats do support his quality, it’s more the appearance of consistency or lack of that concerns Liverpool fans and that is understandable.
My only hope for our controversial captain is that he improves his game and thus stops every review saying ‘lots of positives and negatives for Henderson’ and eliminates all the poor performances. If he does that I’m certain that he will win over the support no matter how divisive the fans can be.
The question is, is he good enough for the captaincy at Liverpool? We need a leader and that is who Henderson should strive to be on the pitch. Still, many fans argue that he isn’t good enough to get into any of the other top four sides in the Premier League so why should he be our captain?
