Ian Wright has told the Wrighty’s House podcast that you could see just how nervous Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson was on the pitch against Southampton.
Henderson was deployed as a central defender for Liverpool on Monday evening, but he never truly looked comfortable in the position right from the start.
Southampton took the lead early on, when Danny Ings scored from a clever free-kick from James Ward-Prowse.
And Wright noticed just how nervous Henderson looked as Southampton set up to take to the set piece.
“What people understand is that you can work on a free-kick, but when it’s live on the tele, people will see it,” Wright said.
“If it’s going to work it has to work in that moment. When you looked at the amount of players Liverpool had there, I think it was seven against five. There was such an overload.
“You could see how uneasy and how nervous Henderson was in the middle there, trying to bring Wijnaldum closer to him, because he wanted to feel more secure.”
Liverpool couldn’t get back into the game after that early set-back, with Southampton going on to win the fixture 1-0.
Whether Henderson will now continue as a central defender or be moved back into his more familiar midfield role in the coming weeks remains to be seen.
Liverpool are desperately short of defensive options at the moment, with Joel Matip out injured.
Rhys Williams and Nathaniel Phillips could fill in at the back, but Klopp doesn’t seem to totally trust either of the inexperienced pair just yet.
Liverpool are next in action against Aston Villa in the FA Cup on Friday evening.
Wrighty’s House is the latest podcast from The Ringer with host Ian Wright with new episodes every Wednesday. The podcast will be available exclusively on Spotify. You can listen here.
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