Micah Richards feels Liverpool star Jordan Henderson proved his ‘world-class’ credentials against Everton and why he is among the Premier League’s best, via his Daily Mail column.
The Reds beat their Merseyside neighbours 4-1 on Wednesday with Henderson pulling the strings. He offered boss Jurgen Klopp a driving force from the away engine room, worked hard on and off the ball and broke the deadlock with precision on his weaker left foot.
Henderson caressed the ball into the bottom-right of Jordan Pickford’s net on nine-minutes for his second goal of the season. He would also turn provider 10-minutes later for his third assist of the campaign, finding Mohamed Salah with a perfectly weighted through ball.
Pickford had no chance of saving Henderson’s curling shot, while the Liverpool ace left the Everton goalkeeper with no protection one-on-one-with Salah after bypassing Lucas Digne.
Richards hails ‘world-class’ Liverpool captain Henderson
Richards believes Henderson’s display at Everton once again showed why the Liverpool star is ‘world-class’. While the 31-year-old midfielder’s efforts all season so far are hard to beat.
“I had played with Jordan for England Under-21s and I knew what he could do – so I called him ‘world-class’ [five-years ago],” Richards wrote. “There wasn’t a lot of agreement with me at the time, but I wanted to make the point.
“Since then, Jordan has gone on to play in a Champions League final, win a Champions League final, lift the Premier League trophy and add a few more cups for good measure.
“Watching him against Everton was fantastic because he proved, once again, that he is world-class. The only midfielders who are operating at his level in the Premier League at the moment are Bernardo Silva and Declan Rice. He deserves every plaudit he receives.”
Henderson has played in all but one and started 11 of Liverpool’s 14 Premier League games this season. Klopp has only awarded five players more minutes than his 983 so far, as well.
Only the Reds’ prolific providers of assists Salah (7), Trent Alexander-Arnold (7) and Andrew Robertson (4) have more, too. Henderson’s three so far this term is the Reds’ £20m 2011 capture from Sunderland’s best per minutes played since 2014/15.
Henderson registered a career single-season high 10 Premier League assists during ‘14/15 over 37 appearances and 3,255-minutes for Liverpool. His record averaged at one every 325.5-minutes, compared to his hit rate of one every 327.6 so far this term.
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