Alan Hutton has warned Jordan Henderson that nothing but a top performance from him will be required against Manchester City ahead of Liverpool’s visit to Wembley at the weekend.
The Reds are set to take on the Cityzens once more in the space of six days in their FA Cup semi-final clash having secured a 2-2 draw with Pep Guardiola’s men in the English top-flight.
“He does bring certain attributes that others can’t but like I said, you do have to play a certain level. I think you can get found out against a team like Man City,” the ex-Aston Villa man told Football Insider.
“That’s no disrespect to him, to Jordan Henderson. It’s happened to world-class players week in, week out. To go to the Etihad and win, every single player has to be a nine or ten out of ten.
“It just didn’t quite happen for Liverpool.”
Jurgen Klopp’s men are involved in all remaining competitions following their League Cup success, getting through to the semi-final of the Champions League via a 6-4 aggregate victory over Benfica.
We’d argue that the skipper’s performance against Benfica was the more concerning out of the two, though Hutton’s correct to suggest that we’ll need the No.14 at his best if we’re to triumph against the league leaders in London.
Upon further consideration, it’s likely Klopp will start his captain in the English capital after Naby Keita was the only midfielder to be left on the pitch in the 3-3 draw with the Primeira Liga outfit.
Henderson’s a key communicator and setter of standards on the pitch, but we’ll need nothing less than a solid outing from him to help keep our quadruple hopes alive.