First of all, I want to be respectful to one of the great LFC captains, someone who proved and achieved everything and someone who has been unfairly criticized for years before most people saw his worth. But... After a result and a performance (in fact a string of performances) like this, we need to talk about Hendo.
Fulham – Henderson starts at RCM, then switches to Thiago's position at LCM after the injury and generally looks all over the place. Passing % in the mid-70's, his giveaway leads to one of the goals, he was more visible than some others in trying to drive the team forward, but was forcing it too much and actually putting us under pressure by giving the ball away a lot more often than Fabinho and Elliott did (both were at 85-86%, ten percentage points higher). As a captain he also has to bear some responsibility for the team's lack of intensity and wrong mentality for the season opener. The one thing you could say in his defence is that playing LCM next to Fabinho has never been his favoured position, although he was just as poor at RCM before Thiago got injured.
Palace – Hendo is benched and the team performance is vastly improved from the start. Unfortunately Fabinho has an uneven game and commits a crucial error for the goal. Henderson comes in after we go down to 10 men to partner Fabinho and try to drive the team forward, which to be fair he does pretty well (87% passing accuracy in that cameo).
United – Klopp cannot afford to drop Elliott after the youngster's superb performance vs Palace and Milner is our best available option at LCM, so it's a straight choice between Fabinho and Hendo for the #6 spot and he chooses the captain. Here are some comments on Henderson's performance in this game from football analyst and LFC fan Stephen Drennan:
[During the 1st half]:
"Not been a good start. Second highest in possession losses from both teams, just 70% passing acc, no duels at all or interceptions. Just no protection."
"[Hendo] is in the #6 position on resets. But when play develops he seems to be anywhere but there. Playing straight through that zone with every attack. Brutal to watch right now.
I should add... Trent has had a bad start to the game also. But there is no real choice to be made there. And that isn't the thing that is absolutely collapsing us and letting United dominate the game and run straight through us every attack. Starting to see the cascade too - like the first game against City last season. As more people abandon their roles to try and get things working... we look less and less like ourselves.
We had Diaz and Firmino as a double pivot to build up that attack. Hendo was the #9. Created a chance from it but it isn't functional and if your two risk-taking creative players lose the ball you are wide open with no #6 again. It isn't sustainable.
Plays a 1-2 and is in the box now as a 9. There are 3 United players standing in the space he vacates waiting for a 3-2 overload on our back-2 when the attack breaks down. Watch it back ~38 minutes. Just madness. No positional discipline at all.
Henderson's passing improved in the final ~15 of that half. Before that he was giving it away with 1/3 of his touches which is a nightmare for a 6. But he was still just AWOL as a 6 for almost the entirety of that half. I dare say you are better off with Milner there as he will at least have some discipline. He was the guy dropping in as the 6 when Hendo vacated. Or Firmino - weirdly.
We do have a major problem to solve in that area. I hate to say it but I don't think Hendo can be trusted in big games against good players who will exploit the spaces he vacates like this. And 'good players' increasingly exist in every team. We saw Brighton and Brentford exploit our weaknesses brilliantly last season. You can't play with such obvious weaknesses. Either the player changes, or you change the player.
Lots of replies along the lines for why focus on Hendo or lots of people playing poorly. The difference is, when someone abandons their role and isn't doing the absolute basic requirements in their role - it creates a chain reaction. A domino effect. You HAVE to see that, right?
I think there are differences between people who are struggling to make this work (Salah, Firmino, Diaz) in a team that looks dysfunctional - to those making it dysfunctional. And I tend to focus on the latter. Playing well in spite of dysfunction rarely happens. Think of it as trying to build a house without foundations. If you have no foundations to build your game on then your electricians, brick layers, plasters and everyone else just can't do their jobs either."
And the summary:
"We might be at that point where Klopp needs to decide if he wants to keep Henderson happy for the good of the locker room. Or bench him based on performances for the good of our results. And I think that is a bigger decision than many realise. Hendo won't take it quietly."
==========================================
There are several other knowledgeable football people who expressed the same level of exasperation over Hendo's indiscipline in the #6 role against United and we all saw those unbelievable gaps in midfield with our own eyes – as a #6 AND a captain, it's most definitely Hendo's responsibility to not only position himself well defensively, but also direct his two midfield partners to close the gaps on both sides, to make sure they are also switched on to their defensive responsibilities. Instead, we have a player who goes AWOL in the one position where you absolutely have to be disciplined and forces others to cover for him, destroying our midfield structure and cohesion. That Klopp substituted Henderson first and not the tiring Milner spoke volumes.
Before the season started most of us assumed that Elliott, Keita and others will probably end up playing most minutes in the RCM spot, but Hendo was accepted a fine option as an alternative to Fabinho at #6 – in fact many of us remember that performance vs Inter Milan when he came on for Fabs and notably improved the speed of our passing in that game. But there is no hiding from reality – Henderson has started the season in awful form no matter which midfield position he played in and I'm starting to think that the looming decision over his role in the team might be the thing that creates tension in the squad and drags the whole team down. Klopp always had reservations about Hendo at RCM and even last season he was already willing to drop him in favour of Elliott in that position – so now it's come to either covering for Thiago in the uncomfortable LCM role or taking away Fabinho's #6 – and I can imagine that as a naturally conflict-averse person Fabinho feels a bit caught between a rock a hard place here, which could affect his performance levels.
Last season one of the players – Mane I think – was asked who are the best and the worst trainers in the squad and he said Hendo was definitely the laziest, which surprised me at the time, however it makes sense for a player with declining physical ability to try to "save" himself during training sessions – in that way Hendo is a polar opposite of Milner. The World Cup thing adds another level – Hendo absolutely cannot afford to lose his starting place in the months before the WC and is trying too hard and forcing things, which only makes it worse.
If there is a silver lining to the Old Trafford debacle is that it could make up Klopp's mind for him. All evidence points to the obvious decision that Henderson should lose his starting place in the team until he forces his way back in training and hopefully with exceptional performances as a sub. If we need to change the system to have fewer midfield spots until Thiago comes back, this also could be a good time to do it. Every team we play from now on will be licking their lips thinking about those giant green spaces in front of our defensive line – we need to decisively put a stop to it, to have not one but two disciplined CMs patrolling that area at all times and to let the front 4 do most of the running, pressing and risk-taking – fortunately we have plenty of younger, eager players in that department. On reflection, this team is not, cannot possibly be nearly as bad as what we saw against Fulham and United – but we will only turn it around if Klopp makes a big decision on Hendo and also tweaks the tactics to suit the team we currently have.
Fulham – Henderson starts at RCM, then switches to Thiago's position at LCM after the injury and generally looks all over the place. Passing % in the mid-70's, his giveaway leads to one of the goals, he was more visible than some others in trying to drive the team forward, but was forcing it too much and actually putting us under pressure by giving the ball away a lot more often than Fabinho and Elliott did (both were at 85-86%, ten percentage points higher). As a captain he also has to bear some responsibility for the team's lack of intensity and wrong mentality for the season opener. The one thing you could say in his defence is that playing LCM next to Fabinho has never been his favoured position, although he was just as poor at RCM before Thiago got injured.
Palace – Hendo is benched and the team performance is vastly improved from the start. Unfortunately Fabinho has an uneven game and commits a crucial error for the goal. Henderson comes in after we go down to 10 men to partner Fabinho and try to drive the team forward, which to be fair he does pretty well (87% passing accuracy in that cameo).
United – Klopp cannot afford to drop Elliott after the youngster's superb performance vs Palace and Milner is our best available option at LCM, so it's a straight choice between Fabinho and Hendo for the #6 spot and he chooses the captain. Here are some comments on Henderson's performance in this game from football analyst and LFC fan Stephen Drennan:
[During the 1st half]:
"Not been a good start. Second highest in possession losses from both teams, just 70% passing acc, no duels at all or interceptions. Just no protection."
"[Hendo] is in the #6 position on resets. But when play develops he seems to be anywhere but there. Playing straight through that zone with every attack. Brutal to watch right now.
I should add... Trent has had a bad start to the game also. But there is no real choice to be made there. And that isn't the thing that is absolutely collapsing us and letting United dominate the game and run straight through us every attack. Starting to see the cascade too - like the first game against City last season. As more people abandon their roles to try and get things working... we look less and less like ourselves.
We had Diaz and Firmino as a double pivot to build up that attack. Hendo was the #9. Created a chance from it but it isn't functional and if your two risk-taking creative players lose the ball you are wide open with no #6 again. It isn't sustainable.
Plays a 1-2 and is in the box now as a 9. There are 3 United players standing in the space he vacates waiting for a 3-2 overload on our back-2 when the attack breaks down. Watch it back ~38 minutes. Just madness. No positional discipline at all.
Henderson's passing improved in the final ~15 of that half. Before that he was giving it away with 1/3 of his touches which is a nightmare for a 6. But he was still just AWOL as a 6 for almost the entirety of that half. I dare say you are better off with Milner there as he will at least have some discipline. He was the guy dropping in as the 6 when Hendo vacated. Or Firmino - weirdly.
We do have a major problem to solve in that area. I hate to say it but I don't think Hendo can be trusted in big games against good players who will exploit the spaces he vacates like this. And 'good players' increasingly exist in every team. We saw Brighton and Brentford exploit our weaknesses brilliantly last season. You can't play with such obvious weaknesses. Either the player changes, or you change the player.
Lots of replies along the lines for why focus on Hendo or lots of people playing poorly. The difference is, when someone abandons their role and isn't doing the absolute basic requirements in their role - it creates a chain reaction. A domino effect. You HAVE to see that, right?
I think there are differences between people who are struggling to make this work (Salah, Firmino, Diaz) in a team that looks dysfunctional - to those making it dysfunctional. And I tend to focus on the latter. Playing well in spite of dysfunction rarely happens. Think of it as trying to build a house without foundations. If you have no foundations to build your game on then your electricians, brick layers, plasters and everyone else just can't do their jobs either."
And the summary:
"We might be at that point where Klopp needs to decide if he wants to keep Henderson happy for the good of the locker room. Or bench him based on performances for the good of our results. And I think that is a bigger decision than many realise. Hendo won't take it quietly."
==========================================
There are several other knowledgeable football people who expressed the same level of exasperation over Hendo's indiscipline in the #6 role against United and we all saw those unbelievable gaps in midfield with our own eyes – as a #6 AND a captain, it's most definitely Hendo's responsibility to not only position himself well defensively, but also direct his two midfield partners to close the gaps on both sides, to make sure they are also switched on to their defensive responsibilities. Instead, we have a player who goes AWOL in the one position where you absolutely have to be disciplined and forces others to cover for him, destroying our midfield structure and cohesion. That Klopp substituted Henderson first and not the tiring Milner spoke volumes.
Before the season started most of us assumed that Elliott, Keita and others will probably end up playing most minutes in the RCM spot, but Hendo was accepted a fine option as an alternative to Fabinho at #6 – in fact many of us remember that performance vs Inter Milan when he came on for Fabs and notably improved the speed of our passing in that game. But there is no hiding from reality – Henderson has started the season in awful form no matter which midfield position he played in and I'm starting to think that the looming decision over his role in the team might be the thing that creates tension in the squad and drags the whole team down. Klopp always had reservations about Hendo at RCM and even last season he was already willing to drop him in favour of Elliott in that position – so now it's come to either covering for Thiago in the uncomfortable LCM role or taking away Fabinho's #6 – and I can imagine that as a naturally conflict-averse person Fabinho feels a bit caught between a rock a hard place here, which could affect his performance levels.
Last season one of the players – Mane I think – was asked who are the best and the worst trainers in the squad and he said Hendo was definitely the laziest, which surprised me at the time, however it makes sense for a player with declining physical ability to try to "save" himself during training sessions – in that way Hendo is a polar opposite of Milner. The World Cup thing adds another level – Hendo absolutely cannot afford to lose his starting place in the months before the WC and is trying too hard and forcing things, which only makes it worse.
If there is a silver lining to the Old Trafford debacle is that it could make up Klopp's mind for him. All evidence points to the obvious decision that Henderson should lose his starting place in the team until he forces his way back in training and hopefully with exceptional performances as a sub. If we need to change the system to have fewer midfield spots until Thiago comes back, this also could be a good time to do it. Every team we play from now on will be licking their lips thinking about those giant green spaces in front of our defensive line – we need to decisively put a stop to it, to have not one but two disciplined CMs patrolling that area at all times and to let the front 4 do most of the running, pressing and risk-taking – fortunately we have plenty of younger, eager players in that department. On reflection, this team is not, cannot possibly be nearly as bad as what we saw against Fulham and United – but we will only turn it around if Klopp makes a big decision on Hendo and also tweaks the tactics to suit the team we currently have.
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