Photo by David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images
Photo by David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty Images
Liverpool supporters have had plenty of new heroes to add to their club’s annals of best players in the past decade, with a golden era emerging under Jurgen Klopp.
While younger generations have listened to their parents and grandparents talk at length about the legends that are Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Graeme Souness and John Barnes, fresher, more modern players have been adding their names to the list.
But while Mohamed Salah is widely seen as being the Klopp player most worthy of being mentioned among greats such as Dalglish and Steven Gerrard, re-framing the question slightly should put Jordan Henderson right in the picture too. What if the issue were not one of the best Liverpool player of all-time, but the most influential? It may sound odd to some, but Henderson has to be right there in the mix.
Henderson was the leader of the greatest modern Liverpool team
Influence at a football club is somewhat harder to measure than pure quality, which is what makes this a far more intriguing debate than simply who was the best. There is a reason users on TalkingPoints have been debating this very matter during the ongoing international break.
The answer of who Liverpool’s most influential player – or players – in history are probably remains a generational one. Older fans would pick out Dalglish for his influence as the talisman of the Reds’ best ever teams, while newer supporters will argue that nobody could match Gerrard for impact.
While both remain ahead of Henderson without question, and others such as Souness, Rush, John Barnes and Salah do as well, the former captain deserves to be in the conversation.
The facts are that Henderson led Liverpool to a trophy that Gerrard never could: the Premier League title. Not only was he the standard-setter and the demanding, motivational captain, the Wearsider also won the FWA Footballer of the Year for 2019/20. He was phenomenal on the pitch as well as off it.
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There were better players than him in that team, with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk, Salah, Robertson Firmino, Sadio Mane and potentially even Andy Robertson and Fabinho probably all ranking higher in terms of quality, but they all looked up to Henderson to get them where they needed to go.
The captain’s armband was not just for show, it was absolutely earned and deserved, and if you listen to any player of that era talk about Henderson now, they do so with the utmost respect and admiration. His influence, along with vice-captain James Milner, in what was inarguably the greatest Liverpool team of the 21st century, was unmatched.
Henderson’s achievements stand up to any player
When talking about influence on a club as big as Liverpool, it is impossible to avoid talking about trophy haul. Gerrard’s biggest drawback in this argument is that he never won the trophy he forever craved, but Henderson did.
In fact, having captained Liverpool to a Champions League and Premier League win, the current Chelsea midfielder can stand up to most players in the Reds’ history.
Others have won far more, and Henderson’s eight doesn’t come close to matching Alan Hansen or Phil Neal, for example, who both won 19 trophies with Liverpool, but he is one of only four men (along with Emlyn Hughes, Phil Thompson and Graeme Souness) who lifted the two biggest trophies on offer as captain.
And this was not just any old good Liverpool team. The side which won the Champions League in 2019 and then the Premier League a year later could go toe-to-toe with any Reds side throughout their 134-year history.
They hit 97 and 99 points in consecutive Premier League seasons and once went on a run of 44 games unbeaten in the division, five short of the all-time record. Henderson was the heartbeat of that team, and it is fairly certain that the Reds would not have managed any of it without him.
So, while the former captain is never going to trouble any all-time Liverpool players lists in terms of the greats to have graced the club, he absolutely deserves to be spoken about as one of the most influential we have ever seen at Anfield.
Some may continue to scoff, but there is a reason Liverpool were so, so good under Klopp, and while Salah, Mane and the rest played their own roles, Henderson’s was one of the absolute biggest.
Photo by Stefan Koops/EYE4IMAGES/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Photo by Stefan Koops/EYE4IMAGES/NurPhoto via Getty Images
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Photo by Gaspafotos/MB Media/Getty Images
A graphic that reads: "Alexander Isak is to return to Liverpool from international duty due to a minor injury." Image shows Alexander Isak playing for Sweden.
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