I think what a lot of people were saying was that his performances weren't consistent enough.
It wasn't anything to do with lack of consistency because during those first couple of seasons he was pretty much consistently bad
Obviously in Mascherano and Alonso he had two hard acts to follow but he used to spend most of the game losing the ball and giving away silly - and sometimes very costly - fouls
Over the last couple of seasons he's completely turned it round and if he's available, he starts - and so he should
He's forged a great partnership with Adam and if Carroll keeps firing blanks, Kenny might have to revert to a 4-2-3-1 formation when Gerrard comes back into the side - with Adam and Lucas playing the anchor roles and with Gerrard behind Suarez