KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum Henderson

Simply the midfield were not great yesterday and Gerrard was everywhere trying to do their job for them hopefully lucas can come back and at least pickup where he left off, no one commands the midfield now we need good players with experience ours are in progress at the moment so we cant totally rely on them, or do we just need better ones?

on form miles but abilty and footballing brain I disagree

JUST MY OPINION

He was obviously bought as a a long term replacement for Gerrard. That is a massive weight to carry especially when the legend is still playing. If I remember, he played some of his best games when Gerrard was injured and he played that role.

He has potential and was bought for the future.

Mid table class player.. oh wait

Shelvey has way more potential than Henderson, Henderson never looks for a killer pass, its always the same passes. Atleast Shelvey is cocky enough to actually try something

+1

The Henderson vs Shelvey argument is moot for me - they don't play in the same position. "Central midfield" is a broad category, but if we're to put labels on things, in a 3-man midfield Shelvey is to Gerrard and Henderson is to Alonso. I'm not talking in terms of ability, but in terms of position. In a 2-man midfield Shelvey is the attacker and Henderson the holding player. I think they can form a decent partnership, but if we stick with 4-4-2 (which we bl00dy well must - hard to find people who still believe deep down that Carroll is a lump), then both players will feature relatively little behind Gerrard and Lucas.

Henderson still has an awful lot to learn though, and will take time to really get to grips with the kind of play we need from him. I find it strange that he's been touted as an attacking player from the off, when his play in the final 3rd has never really been all that good. Most of his good work has been in releasing players with through balls from near halfway, and until the last few games has been good defensively. Which is why he plays rather than Shelvey when Gerrard is fit - one of the few tactical points from the manager that I agree with.

He's one for the future, so lets not write him off yet. I believe he played much more this season than he should have, and that's hurt his confidence because he's been on the losing side a lot and it's hard to feel good about your good performances when the side is playing badly (form-wise or tactically), and very easy to be down on yourself (with help from Liverpool fans and English media) when you have a bad game.