Former Premier League defender Micah Richards, once of our biggest rivals Manchester City, has praised Jordan Henderson and described Liverpool’s skipper as a ‘world-class’ player.
Richards was discussing England’s world-class operators and put Hendo in the same bracket as Harry Kane.
He told BBC Radio 5 Live, cited in the Echo : “Harry Kane is world-class.
“In midfield, there’s no other world, world-class midfielders.
“Henderson, you’d argue Henderson’s world-class, because of what he’s done and consistency and whatnot.
“He’s won a European Cup, he’s been consistent over the last three or four years. Yeah, it really is [hard to write off a Champions League-winning captain].
“You know what, I’m going to go with that statement, I’m going to say Henderson is world-class and a lot of the work that he does goes unnoticed because he’s not getting 10 assists a season or scoring 10 goals a season.
“I was referring to on the field but off the field as well.
“I’ve played with Henderson and he’s just an honest guy who would run through brick walls for you, he’s willing to improve, he wants the team to be at its best.
“I watched him in the Liverpool-Man City game and he just doesn’t stop running.”
We’re not sure of the benefit of debating whether a player is ‘word-class’ or not – as after all – what does it even mean?
But it’s nice that the skipper’s contributions are noticed outside of the club, considering how much bizarre stick he gets from some circles.
If he wasn’t a superb, tactically smart footballer, he wouldn’t start for Jurgen Klopp. That much is simple. And the German has just been named FIFA Best Manager of the Year, so perhaps he knows what he’s talking about.
This isn’t to say that Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain won’t play huge roles for us this term, but time and time again the manager has shown he trusts Hendo implicitly, especially alongside Fabinho and Gini Wijnaldum.
That is the three we we expect to see for Liverpool v Crystal Palace at the weekend, too – with a win confirming we’ll either stay eight points clear or potentially increase our lead considering Manchester City are playing Chelsea.