Craig Burley has claimed that Jordan Henderson was exactly the sort of player who Liverpool needed this past weekend.
Jurgen Klopp’s side were subjected to a 7-2 mauling away to Aston Villa.
By virtue of the fact that Liverpool won the Premier League last season, and Sunday’s opposition escaped relegation by a point, it was one of the most surprising results in recent memory.
The Reds were without their inspiration captain in midfield, with Henderson only recently back from injury.
And Burley has claimed that the skipper looked truly ‘disgusted’ at what he observed from the bench last weekend.
He told ESPN: “We saw a clip of Jordan Henderson on the bench, a guy that gets besmerched by a lot of people like Liverpool can just leave him out. He looked disgusted on the bench. That’s the kind of player they were missing, a guy in the middle of the park who might not have the same talent as others, but has a bit of grit, a bit of balls.”
Would Henderson have made a difference? Well, probably not.
There’s no question that he’s captain for a reason, and the Merseysiders were certainly devoid of leadership.
But when you’re the Premier League champions and you lose by five goals, there’s probably more to it than simple leadership issues.
Adrian, who deputised for the injured Alisson, didn’t cover himself in glory between the sticks, nor did Joe Gomez or Virgil van Dijk in front of him.
There were problems all around the pitch for Liverpool and Henderson is unlikely to have made a massive difference.
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