'I was wrong' - Reds hero eats humble pie & hails 'transformed' £20m LFC star.

Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson is arguably the club's most improved player over the last 18 months, and he continues to surprise many people with his excellent performances, including Anfield legend Ian St. John, who has been a regular critic of the £20m man.

In October, St. John criticised Henderson for failing to have a consistent impact on the team, and urged him to 'try and influence the game more'.

Well, Hendo has answered his critics in spades this season, and St. John is happy to eat humble pie. In his column for 5-Times this week, he enthused:

"I can’t believe how much Jordan Henderson has improved. I felt the club was too big for him when he signed and he struggled to embrace what it really meant to be a Liverpool player. He wasn’t making an impact and I was thinking: ‘You need to go back to Sunderland and play at that level.’ I was wrong. His passing has been transformed, he is running behind defenders and took on the extra weight of Steven Gerrard’s absence"

There's no hiding the fact that Henderson has really come into his own without Steven Gerrard in the team. He seems to thrive on the responsibility, and with more of the ball in his favoured playmaker position, Hendo is free to express himself without the restriction of Gerrard alongside him. He is, quite simply, liberated, and it is paying dividends for Liverpool.

Credit must also go to Kenny Dalglish, who received intense criticism for spending £20m on Henderson. Whether he's worth the fee continues to be questionable, but unlike some of his other signings, Dalglish clearly picked a winner with Hendo.

I may have been wrong about Suarez's new deal (!), but I've never been on the anti-Henderson bandwagon. The only (valid) criticism I've ever had of him - and continue to have - is that his end product is not good enough. With two goals and five assists now this season, that appears to be changing, but Hendo needs to continue to score/create goals consistently if he's to maintain his improvement.

Two goals in nineteen games is simply not good enough for an attack-minded midfielder who plays practically every game for the club. Henderson's great form at the moment doesn't change the fact that he's struggled to score/create goals consistently for Liverpool, and in that regard, my criticism is justified, as it will be in the future if he goes through another creative drought.

What happens, however, when Gerrard returns? Given his status at Anfield, it is a foregone conclusion that he'll walk straight back into the side, irrespective of how the team is performing. Henderson is (arguably) more effective than Gerrard this season, but that probably won't cut any ice with Rodgers, who maintains that the Reds 'are a better team with the captain in it'.

Is that really true? In my view, The team is clearly more effective without Gerrard at the moment, and if Liverpool are flying high in the league when he returns, it will be a delicate balancing act for Rodgers when it comes to reintegrating him into the team.

Henderson is (or could be) the future; Gerrard is in the twilight of his career, and hasn't scored from open play in over ten months. It's hard to contemplate, but the transition needs to start sooner rather than later...

Author: Jaimie K