da leao： Liverpool have made a clear and deliberate attempt to plan for the future this summer with their transfer business so far, with both Fabio Borini and Joe Allen 22 years of age or younger, but the switch that saw the latter move to Anfield just a few days ago could have a knock-on effect on yet another young player at the club, Jordan Henderson, so just what does the future hold for the midfielder?
da betway： Joe Allen arrived from Swansea for £15m in a move that saw boss Brendan Rodgers go back on a supposed gentleman’s agreement between the two clubs – the price may be worth value for money in the long-term, but in the short-term at least, it looks a lot to pay for a player with just one season’s worth of top flight experience under his belt.
What the club’s pursuit does tell us, though, as they paid out Allen’s release clause in his contract, while reportedly tripling his wages and offering him a £2m signing on deal, is that Rodgers was extremely keen to get Allen into the club and on board. Of course, the young Welshman is less of risk when you approach it from the viewpoint that he is familiar with Rodgers ethos, style and what he wants from his players, so in that regard, he should take less time to settle than you would normally expect, and he looks set to secure a starting berth alongside Lucas Leiva in the heart of the midfield, with Steven Gerrard just ahead of them both in something of a free role.
Henderson, lest we forget, is still just 22 years of age himself and despite a rocky first season on Merseyside, where he failed to justify the £16m fee forked out for him from Sunderland, he is still undoubtedly a fine player in the making with huge potential and he’s shown good strength of character in being able to cope with all of the criticism that has come his way, which is wholly unfair when you consider his age.
Much in the same way that Theo Walcott is hampered by lofty expectations at Arsenal, Henderson isn’t a very typical English style of player – quietly effective, composed and with a tidy range of passing – there are no barnstorming forward runs, last-ditch tackles and headline-grabbing performances and the talk of him being the club’s long-term heir to captain Steven Gerrard upon first completing the move has given some people unrealistic expectations and the result is that some appear to have an extremely loose grasp, let alone appreciation, for what kind of player he actually is.
Instead, he’s disciplined, tactically aware and as fit as a fiddle, with possessing the ability to play the ball on the deck and you suspect that he fits in rather neatly into Rodgers vision for the club going forward and his much-talked about footballing philosophy, but the signing of Allen does mean that his path into the starting eleven, when everybody is fit at least, is blocked off to an extent.
Here’s what Rodgers had to say on Henderson to the Liverpool Echo last month: “I look at the young kid Jordan Henderson who got a wee bit of stick last year but do you know what, this is a boy who was 21 years of age. I thought when I first saw him at Sunderland that this kid is going to be a really good player. He’s coming to a massive club and massive expectation. He moves away from home, he is on his own and he has to be a world beater straight away. It was never going to happen.
“This kid can play football. If he is in a certain system – in an environment which is going to help him and educate him in the game – you will see that. The biggest thing for me that I’ve heard about Jordan is his attitude. He has got an incredible attitude. If you have got a player like that who has got the ability and the thirst to learn – he can run all day, he is physically good, he is strong, he is quick – and you can remodel him.”
While obviously sounding a bit like the voice-over to the six billion dollar man: ‘Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world’s first bionic man. Jordan Henderson will be that man. Better than he was before. Better…stronger…faster’, Rodgers does have a point regarding Henderson and the main problem for him last term was that he lacked a clearly defined role under previous boss Kenny Dalglish, often being shunted out wide into an unfamiliar position on the right – a top flight version of what every Sunday League club does when they stick the young lad up front even though he doesn’t play there, just because he might be quicker than everyone else.
Henderson flourished at Sunderland in a three-man midfield and it looks as if Rodgers is keen to replicate the system he used at Swansea during his time at Liverpool and with a European campaign in mind, Henderson will surely start upwards of 30 games over the course of the season. If anything, not being a guaranteed starter, but a relied upon squad member could be exactly what was needed to take the spotlight away from him and the near-constant talk about his hefty fee.
You only have to look at the competition in midfield to realise that Henderson, despite the Allen signing, will be seeing a lot of playing time. If the club manage to clinch the signing of Fulham’s Clint Dempsey, which everyone now assumes they will do now that their priority target of Allen has been secured, then that leaves five players into three positions.
Alberto Aquilani has already been moved on to Fiorentina this summer to create space in the squad and room to manoeuvre in the wage budget for the Allen switch, while Charlie Adam looks like he’s going to be moved on if the club receive a suitable offer for him with Fulham mooted as a potential destination after he struggled for consistency last term, and the Scot clearly lacks the necessary fitness and mobility to play in a Rodgers side.
There has been talk of youngster Jonjo Shelvey being moved out on loan again this season, but the new-found maturity he displayed during his composed display at the heart of the midfield alongside Lucas during the club’s 3-0 win over FC Gomel surely provided food for thought for the new boss. Jay Spearing looks set be kept around if for no other reason than he provides a decent understudy to Lucas should he get injured again.
Henderson may not be assured of a starting place in the same way that he was under Dalglish last season, but the same can be said for both Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll too as Rodgers looks set to rotate his squad a lot more, relying on past performances as opposed to the player in question’s transfer fee.
This competition for places should serve the side well, while Henderson’s versatility means he could also play a key part in a number of different roles and while he may not perhaps be as integral as before, with the inevitable injuries you’ll suffer from competing on four fronts over the course of a long season, his style means he has the potential to be Liverpool’s answer to Ramires should he find his feet in the new-look side and system.
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