Since joining the club in 2011, Jordan Henderson has been a staple in every edition of Liverpool side we have seen. Under 3 managers, and being seen as good enough to be captain under two of those managers, Henderson has amassed 226 appearances at the club and a total of 300 appearances in the Premier League if you add his Sunderland career into the mix, on paper, it would make you wonder why he is so hated and abused. He made his debut for Liverpool against his boyhood club Sunderland, in what was a depressing 1-1 draw to the lesser club. Henderson scored his first goal for the club not long after with a striker against Bolton Wanderers at Anfield a few weeks later. After a pretty lacklustre season, where he was mostly wasted out on the right-hand side of midfield, notably in the game where he won his first and, as of now, the last trophy for Liverpool, when the club beat Cardiff in the 2012 League Cup final, he came off just before the hour-mark in that game after playing poorly on the right of midfield. He later played the full game against Chelsea in the FA Cup final at Wembley, where Liverpool unfortunately lost. Henderson struggled for consistency, especially being played out of position and despite being young at the time, this is where a majority of fans’ distaste for him comes from.
Henderson’s Liverpool career was almost over as he was told by Brendan Rogers the following season that he was free to join Fulham. Henderson has spoken about this and claimed it was devastated to be told so bluntly that he was not needed. However, he decided he would rather fight for his place at the club rather than move down the league, which he does not get enough credit for doing. It was clear this would be an uphill battle In the 12/13 season for Jordan as he started the first 4 Premier League games on the bench without getting off of it, in those games Liverpool had 0 wins, including a 3-0 pummeling on the opening day to West Brom. Henderson did manage to improve his goalscoring output this season, however, scoring 6 goals, three times the amount he managed in his debut season. He also managed to gain most of his appearances this season in a central role, rather than being wasted out wide.
At this point, you would not be blamed for seeing Henderson as a flop or labelling him as “not good enough for the club”, but 13/14 came and Henderson had become a new man. He started all of the first 13 games in the Premier League, and played the entire 90minutes in all of them, in which Liverpool had only lost three times, a significant improvement on starts to past seasons, and this was no coincidence, with Henderson being deployed in a box-to-box role in a midfield that included Coutinho and Gerrard, where Henderson was the energy and winner of the ball in the tiki-taka movement that Rogers wanted to play. Henderson had done it, he had changed around his Liverpool career and become an immovable force in one of the most exciting teams in the league. The season went on and Henderson only did not play 90minutes ONCE before the famous and emotional win against Manchester City, where he got sent off in the final moments for a challenge on Nasri, little did we know in the heat of the moment just how much of an impact Henderson’s absence would have on the remaining games of the season.
Henderson was suspended for Norwich away, where it went relatively unnoticed of his absence, however, when Chelsea came to town, it was obvious. In a first half where we struggled to maintain any form of energy or press, Liverpool struggled, that was further emphasized when *that* goal happened. Liverpool went on through that game crying out for some energy in the midfield, some initiative, and without Henderson’s box-to-box capabilities, it was futile. Jordan ended the season with 90minutes against Newcastle where we won. This was Henderson’s breakthrough season, he had become a vital cog and the go-to vice-captain in the absence of Steven Gerrard or Daniel Agger.
14/15 came, and without Luis Suarez, Daniel Sturridge and a squad of inconsistent performers, Henderson was one of the few who seemed consistent. Gerrard was not getting the same level of game-time as the previous season and Henderson was the clear choice for captain in his absence since Agger had been moved on in that previous Summer. Henderson played every game of Liverpool’s Champions League barring the 1-0 loss away to Madrid and once again was hugely significant in the league, despite the team’s inconsistencies. Henderson picked up the first injury of his Liverpool career this season and missed Liverpool’s brief Europa League campaign through this. Henderson established himself as the only leader starting consistently in the squad in this season, with many of his starts, especially in the second-half of the season, included him wearing the captain’s armband.
However, 15/16 came and so did Gerrard’s day to leave the club that adored him so highly, Henderson was now the official captain of Liverpool Football Club, and taking over from Gerrard, it was always going to create controversy that a guy who is from Sunderland, who was almost binned a few seasons previous is taking the armband from the club’s greatest ever captain.
This agenda against Henderson was fuelled even more when he picked up an injury 3 games into the season when he injured his heel, he then suffered a fractured metatarsal straight after and missed 11 straight league games where the side had dropped points way too often and were struggling after another Summer of heavy investment. Jurgen Klopp came in for Rogers during Henderson’s injury absence and did not get to play for the German until a win against 1-0 Swansea. Henderson then had seemingly recovered from his horror show of injuries that had tainted his start to the season and he had become a starter and captain for one of the world’s great managers, Jurgen Klopp. However, disaster struck the captain again as he tore his knee ligament leading up to a game against Stoke, this would ensure that Henderson would not play again for the rest of the season until the final game, which was a depressing 1-1 draw against West Brom.
This season was the turning point for Liverpool fans, it had been two years since we’d seen Henderson excelling, and despite there being huge positivity about the team under the new manager, Henderson wasn’t included due to him missing the majority of the season through injury. With him remaining captain through all of this, the fans built up an agenda against Henderson and it was back to him being “not good enough”.
Henderson started the 16/17 season being a starter and captain for Klopp, as the club had a decent start to the season, however, when the team did show it’s frailties again in games such as the 2-0 loss to Burnley or the infamous 4-3 against Bournemouth, Henderson was the clear scapegoat for the fans. This hatred was building, to a boil. It didn’t help when Henderson once again had his season cut short when he injured his foot in February, which ended his season. So, as the team progressed under Klopp, Henderson continued to be left out through injury, building and building upon the hatred that the fans were having for him pointlessly.
Then came 17/18. Henderson was still captain and seemed fit again, the club had an iffy start to the season where we lost 5-0 to City and 4-1 to Spurs, and guess who was the scapegoat whenever the club dropped points again? You guessed it, Henderson(and Lovren admittedly) and when Henderson picked up another injury in December which kept him out until the end of January, it seemed that the fans had finally had enough, saying Henderson is unfit, untrustworthy and mediocre when it came to actual footballing ability. Henderson was hated by almost all of the fanbase, which for a captain to be hated is quite rare.
Despite the club’s run in the Champions League, the midfield was still labelled as a weak point, mainly because of Henderson, despite his leadership and passion throughout that whole campaign in Europe being the best it’s ever been, it was clear that no matter what Henderson did, he was always going to be on the wrong end of the stick in the eyes of the fans, I mean, he leads the team to the Champions League final for the first time in 13 years, and the fans still found a way to complain about him.
Despite a superb season from Henderson, fans were calling for him to be replaced by the incoming Keita and mocking Henderson as “finished” when the news broke of Fabinho’s arrival at the club. Despite these two huge purchases, Henderson has been one of the best performers this season and it is so blatantly obvious how much worse we are when he isn’t in the team, which was clear even earlier in the week against West Ham. He links the team together, stabilises the midfield and squad, he always has.
Henderson is a brilliant footballer and a superb leader who has been the scapegoat of the Liverpool squad ever since he joined the club. It is time we come to our senses and support our captain rather than jumping on fickle bandwagons just because he is not hitting them top bins from 40 yards like Gerrard or spraying it 60 yards across the pitch like Alonso. Henderson is told to play the simple role he plays, so he plays it, he does it well and he always will, because he is a good professional, good guy and most importantly, a good footballer who was treated wrongly due to unfortunate injuries and circumstances throughout his career. And at 28 years of age, there are still many years left in him to perform at the level he does consistently.
Nathan Brennan 