I've noticed that all of a sudden he is hitting a lot of long balls (Pre-season and Vs Watford) he can make the pass and it looks good. I've also noticed that they are quite inaffective, they are high looped passes so are slow. This gives the opposition time to adjust. Henderson needs to think and be brave, it's sometimes more effective to carry the ball or play it short through the midfield other than hitting these impressive but inaffective balls out wide. As much as Wijnaldum was terrible Vs Watford, the game did pass him by as we didn't play through the middle. at all.
To be fair, at least he's trying to take more risks - but playing long balls alone doesn't mean he's being more aggressive. The number of times he demands the ball from the centre backs only to either play out square to the FB's or back to the CB's is embarrassing and counter productive. We need a player who receives the ball on the half turn, and plays upfield quickly. Henderson is simply not good enough to pass through lines and that is the overal problem with our midfield without Coutinho. All the stats about him being the leagues best passer and most forward passes is complete bollocks - the reason being, passing the ball to a FB who is one yard ahead of him is counted as a forward pass. It's not progressive at all - there's a stat called 'packing' which measures how far up the field the passes go. This is far more meaningful because it tells you which players are best at getting the ball forward. Hendersons best ability/role is box to box - 13/14 is where he shone as a supporting act by helping Gerrard by doing the dog work, and supporting he act by making those runs into the box. He is/was never ever gonna be a star for a big club. Without his dynamism, he is reduced to what we see today. Someone who can recycle possession quickly and efficiently, but doesn't get us far up the pitch. He's not good defensively and his positioning is awful - not his fault because this is a new role for him and it's not suited to him. Maybe take the captainancy off him, and relieve him of that burden, and we may see an improvement in his game. He's simply not a leader or a captain. My prediction is that he won't be in the starting line up next season and he won't be captain once VVD is here. If we want to develop as a club, Henderson cannot be a starting midfielder. Please pray that Keita is coming this year.
You guys do realise klopp has set the whole side up to ping ling balls? Both cbs to play balls to full backs.. high up pitch. Coutinho deep pinging balls all preseason to salah Etc etc. Hes looking for quick ball to stretch sides. He ate to bollox out of them at ht saturday and suddenly both full backs were much higher and balls were being played up to them. Either get a throw cos the opponent defends or you get the ball and play.
I think this is the beginning of the end for Henderson. He has the incurable foot injury and he looks way off the pace at the moment.
