26 Nov 2017 13:57:49
How easy is it for opposition players to ghost past Henderson in the centre of the park? I mean it's like he's running in quick sand all game. His agility isn't suited to the holding role and even when you think of moving him higher up the field he's not going to replace Lallana now that he's fit and coutinho in that role. Yes we've got plenty of games in the next few week but I'd like to see Hendo and Milner dropped for the next few with Can, Lallana, Wijnaldum, Coutinho and the Ox in the mix for that 3 in midfield.

1.) 26 Nov 2017
26 Nov 2017 14:29:44
It was really easy, but not because of Henderson. Henderson was exhausted because he has to cover so much ground. He had no help from Milner or coutinho.

I think we could improve in his position too but this constant bashing is getting out of hand.

2.) 26 Nov 2017
26 Nov 2017 14:48:33
Tj red. your kidding right.

3.) 26 Nov 2017
26 Nov 2017 14:53:43
Hendo never tacled. Never won any balls. Guys past right by him. Maybe he needs the same stick Moreno gets. Moreno. miss one ball and the pitch forks come out. Is he untouchable? Seems a little biased here. Agree milner was awfull. But isn't he the captain. To control his midfield.

4.) 26 Nov 2017
26 Nov 2017 14:54:29
I think people falling into a trap of homing in on Henderson as the source of all our midfield problems.

I know Klopp doesn't use a "natural" defensive midfielder, preferring instead to rely on team pressing (although we haven't seen as much of that this year, imo) but your midfielders still need to be able to defend in so far as that they need to be able to make tackles, and see gaps and dangerous situations and close them off. Our midfielders struggle with that.

Can's a decent tackler, but he doesn't spot danger well. Henderson sometimes spots danger. Sometimes. And he isn't a great tackler so when he gets to the danger, he can't always deal with it. Ditto Wijnaldum, and he's probably a worse tackler than Henderson. The rest of them can't do any of the defensive side of the game at all imo. Coutinho, Lallana and Milner generally just occupy a space and force opposition players to pass around them, and in some cases they don't occupy the right space. So that's 3 players out of 6 who can sort of do half of the job they need to do off the ball. That's just not enough.

Yesterday, Milner kept moving out to the right and Coutinho did literally nothing when we didn't have the ball. That left Hendo on his own to try and hold the midfield. It would've been a tough ask for a natural defensive midfielder and Henderson isn't one. And if Can had been fit and played instead of Henderson, we probably would've had roughly the same outcome.

Basically, with the way our midfield is set up and with the personnel we have, more often than not it's going to be possible to play through our midfield easily. So we're relying on being such a forward threat that the opposition are too pinned back to stop us. The only time our midfield looked 'solid' this season was was in one game when we played with only two center mids, Gini and either Hendo or Can (I can't remember which), and both of them sat in so there wasn't really space for the opposition to play around them.

That's the only solution we have at the moment. If we keep going with a midfield three, with one theoretically holding and others given freedom to join the attack, we're going to be soft in the middle, regardless of who we put in the "holding" role.

5.) 26 Nov 2017
26 Nov 2017 15:32:54
I love your analasis. I am talking about man to man. I like the guy he is a super human being. As a defensive midfielder he is just the one. Everyone talks about his work rate. Doing what? When he neess ro tackle he shepherds others to go in and tackle. He seem not to make many. mistakes as he shys away from it. I have specifically tried to watch him to see if I am too harsh on him. You know what I have seen nothing he offers in that specific position. He may better up front but where he is playing now has never suited him. Against teams we dominate he looks good. Against teams with good midfielders he is found wanting. This is not to bash him specifically but shouldn't he get the same treatment here as Moreno and migs get.

6.) 26 Nov 2017
26 Nov 2017 17:02:09
Ried, TJ is not kidding. Neither is SR. They are correct in their analysis. You may wanna shift the debate over to Hendo as an individual BUT that won't work here cos it seems you are only interested in slating the boy and not looking at the fact that he is struggling majority of the time cos he gets NO help from Milner, Wiji nor Cou defensively. You cannot have it both ways. Hendo is NOT a DM BUT he has shown he can be effective there all through last season before his injury.

"He seems to not make mistakes cos he shies away from it". Is that a sick joke? Who attempted more forward passes last season before his injury in Jan? Hendo. He had 4 assists and goal of the season arguably last season. He was great vs Saints and Hudd and scored the winning goal vs LC this season. How do you do all that w/ o taking risks? Your bias is deafening. You CANNOT slate Hendo and then leave the other CM's who hung him out to dry unscathed. That is dishonest and disingenuous.