* Passes backwards less than Pogba, Ramsey and Fernandinho
* Makes more forward passes per game than Pogba, Kante and Ramsey
* Creates as many chances as Kante, more than Ramsey and Fernandinho
* Makes more tackles a game than Pogba, Ramsey and Fernandinho
* Has a higher pass length average than Pogba, Kante, Ramsey and Fernandinho
* Gives away fewer fouls than Pogba, Ramsey, Kante and Fernandinho.
What it doesn't show here is his most impressive stat. He has recovered the ball 65 times for us this season. By far the most of any Liverpool player. Kante is constantly praised for this aspect of his game over and over and he's made 4 more recoveries this season. Fernandinho has only 49.
Like I said, I don't know what people have been watching but I'm pretty confident that I'm seeing an excellent player and the stats agree with me. Say stats don't tell the whole story all you want, but fact is I've got my story, my opinion and evidence to back it up... The Henderson bashers have their story, their opinion and what...? A grudge held over 6 years and a yearning to say 'told you so' at every single second based on nonsense.
Could he add a few more goals and assists to his game, yea. But so could the rest of our team, and fact is that if we had a centre forward that could score 20+ a season it wouldn't matter. If we had advanced midfielders who could make 20+ assists a season, it wouldn't matter. Yet we point the finger at the DM who's clearly doing his job and say 'do our forwards job too or you're sh*t' or 'do our advanced play makers jobs too or you're sh*t'.
I don't get it. We're pointing the finger at maybe the one f**king player we have who's doing his job well. In the Premier League our highest assist maker has 2 why is no one having a go at our wingers or 'false 9' who's meant to be creating these chances? Our top goalscorer has 4 and only one of our central midfielders has even scored, have a f**king guess who that midfielder was by the way. Still sh*t though right. Any proof of that? Nah just sh*t innit. Pathetic.
To start off with it, I've often said before that Henderson playing as our most 'DM' isn't really an issue and that some of the criticism directed towards him is, in my opinion, largely undeserved. As you say, he does what Klopp asks of him and he does it fairly well, not excellent though. You can't deny he does have a problem with setting the tempo and that, even though his forward passing has improved, it still is an issue.
What you can't do, is use a bunch of statistics, compare them to a few midfield players and then say you have evidence to back up your opinion. Other than Fernandinho, none of them even play in a midfield three or play a role even close to Henderson's. The formations they play in, the tactics and their positioning in general is completely different compared to how Henderson is asked to play. The only one who comes somewhat close in terms of his role, is Fernandinho (and even his role is different) and as you can tell, their statistics are indeed fairly similar.
Statistics like "completed most passes into the final 3rd of the pitch" and "average pass lenght" are flawed. Of course Henderson completes a lot of passes into the final 3rd. Given how far up the pitch we play and how high his position usually is, most diagonal passes to our full backs, who very often will find themselves in the final 3rd, will count as "a forward pass into the final 3rd". That statistic is flawed, certainly for his position in our system. His passing has indeed become more adventurous and he will indeed try to play a vertical pass more often, but his decision making of when to play the vertical pass, isn't good. (Look at his pass to Sturridge against Newcastle which leads to their goal, it's not the main cause, but it starts it all.) In the United game I recall a few occasions where Coutinho found some space centrally, showed for the ball, but Henderson refused to play it forward because he's not comfortable playing that type of ball.
Here's a comparison to a player who also plays a high intensity game and plays as the most 'DM' of his team. They also play a false 9 very often (Mertens). The system is different, but his role is similar.
Look at his forward passes, that's what we need more of from Henderson. If you'd add in pass completion % for both, Henderson is at 78%, Jorginho is at 92%, even when playing these forward passes. The lenght of his passes doesn't matter, forward passes can be relatively short, as long as it's a pass that goes through an opposition line, it's fine. With Coutinho and Wijnaldum we have two midfielders who are perfectly capable of receiving these forward passes in tight spaces, but we end up not using them because Henderson doesn't play it vertically into these spaces often enough. Most of his forward passes are either to the wide fullbacks or long diagonals for Mane and Salah to run on.
With all that said... Does Henderson do his job? He does. Can we improve on him? We can. Should we improve on him? We should. With Can set to leave next season, that only leaves Henderson as the one DM. Keita could play there, but that would limit him and his ability too much I think. I'm hoping Klopp then goes looking to bring someone in for that position, preferrably someone who can replace Henderson in the starting eleven. A midfield of for example Jorginho, Keita and Lallana would set the league on fire. Wijnaldum, Henderson and Alex as stand ins is very good strenght in depth.