Jordan Henderson is rarely rated highly because of statistics.
His strengths lie in his leadership, his work-rate rate and the energy he offers the side – something hard to calculate via numbers.
But the CIES Football Observatory, a Swiss think-tank who are the world leaders in analysing Europe’s big five leagues, have released a report that states Hendo has been the most productive player since the turn of the New Year.
‘The CIES Football Observatory has conceived a unique approach to rate players on a match-by-match basis by taking into account the pitch production and efficiency at both individual and collective level (methodology). Using data from OptaPro, the values presented refer to the averages for matches played at big-5 league,’ they say.
You can read more about the methodology by following the link.
Here are their current top ten, with Hendo at the top. When you consider how excellent the skipper was in December, a month not counted in their metric, it shows just what an outstanding season he’s truly had.
Interestingly, if you rewind and include the past six months of data, Joe Gomez is in fact Liverpool’s most highly rated player – coming in 4th place, with Virgil van Dijk 7th and Hendo 12th.
It looks like Henderson will likely win the Premier League Player of the Year award. Kevin de Bruyne has arguably been more impressive individually, but when a team is 25 points clear its driving force and inspiration deserves recognition.