By Alex Tate (TTT Subscriber Tattva).
When a club captain makes 24 appearances in a season it marks a professional disappointment. A spectacular strike in a 2-1 victory over Chelsea at the Bridge earning goal of the month in September is surely only a bit of fun in addition to four assists and three games in the League Cup.
As the natural leadership successor to Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson was arriving at his peak years ready to excel in a role previously vacated by so many legends of the past. Yet many felt he wasn’t worthy, and with appearance figures for 2016/17 mirroring the previous campaign he had less chance to prove them wrong. So is our leader too much of a crock to wear the armband?
The first half of the season saw Henderson at his energetic, quick thinking, versatile best. As the rest of the team shone too, Liverpool rose to second in the table by New Year. Having only been substituted twice in the campaign, when fit Henderson is clearly a dynamic character with an engine built for 90 solid minutes, or, the ability to cover an average close to 12kms a game. But his irritating heel injury, the incurable plantar fasciitis, has been a concern for a number of years now.
Winning over half of his duels and with a passing accuracy over 80%, in Henderson Klopp has a player who has flourished under his tutelage. By adding more finesse and creativity to his game he is pressing further forward, as a result providing a solid base for Coutinho, Firmino, Lallana and Mane to steal the show. His influence was further acknowledged in the early part of the campaign by having the most touches and making the most passes in the opening three months of the PL season.
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