at what point are new players actually accountable for their performances?
He's been here for FIVE YEARS and we are still saying "there is a good player in there somewhere."
if we were a top club and allegedly as ruthless as we claim to be then a player would get one season, two max, of being sh*te, before being booted. After five years of Henderson some are still wanting to give him a pass.
Henderson has shown signs of being a quality player. When he's not fighting through injury and put in the right system in his actual position, he demonstrates that to a high degree. He was integral in the 13/14 season and as many have said, he was sorely missed in the last few games of that season.
Early on he completely lacked confidence and was kind of a flex player thrown around the midfield. Then he solidified himself in the CM role in 13/14 and to me, he was excellent there and then. Did well in 14/15 again I thought. Wasn't easy for anyone in our attacking half that season given that we essentially had no adequate strikers and were utterly miserable offensively - he was our 4th leading scorer that season behind Stevie, Sterling, and Coutinho and he also won player of the month twice - Couts won 5 and Kolo and Sterling grabbed 1 each.
This last season, he's become a forgotten man a bit and people don't give him anywhere near the credit he deserves. We were a club in transition and he was a player who had ligament damage to both his knee and foot. Anyone who has ever had ligament damage before knows how f*cking awful it is. But still, coming back from injury I do think he's got a lot to offer and as I said before, this coming season will be the one that dictates whether he can make it in a top team or whether he simply should go to a Stoke type of team and take the lead there. Personally, my money is on the former, knowing that Klopp and co. can find ways to maximize potential if they see it in him.
With the midfield quality we've brought in/already have, he will have a lot to fight for and prove once again. His key areas to improve on continue to be his confidence and his ability to truly dictate the pace of the game and grab the game by the scruff of its neck and guide the team. These are all things that really quite easily can be improved on with the right frame of mind. I can't see Jürgen standing for a midfielder captain without those capabilities and I think Wijnaldum will overshadow him in that sense if he's not up to it. But still to put it simply, to write him off would be a massive mistake in my opinion.
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