Jordan Henderson

[Corndog]

What would taking the armband away from Henderson accomplish?

You don't need an armband to be a leader. One of the great things about this side is that there is a great mix of experience and leadership throughout.

Milner and VVD don't refuse to be constant leaders on the field because they aren't the first one to wear the armband.

The captaincy is a mostly symbolic thing. So long as its never used to alone justify the starting of a member in the squad then it shouldn't matter who has it.

And in the case of Klopp, it clearly never was the case, Milner captained the squad loads of times last season brilliantly even when Hendo was fit but left on the bench because the form of Gini, Milner and Keita/Fabinho was good.

You gain nothing and risk upsetting someone by transferring the captaincy between two current members within a squad.

[baitman]

What would taking the armband away from Henderson accomplish?

You don't need an armband to be a leader. One of the great things about this side is that there is a great mix of experience and leadership throughout.

Milner and VVD don't refuse to be constant leaders on the field because they aren't the first one to wear the armband.

The captaincy is a mostly symbolic thing. So long as its never used to alone justify the starting of a member in the squad then it shouldn't matter who has it.

And in the case of Klopp, it clearly never was the case, Milner captained the squad loads of times last season brilliantly even when Hendo was fit but left on the bench because the form of Gini, Milner and Keita/Fabinho was good.

You gain nothing and risk upsetting someone by transferring the captaincy between two current members within a squad.

All very true and most certainly why klopp wont change.

[Exiled_red]

You can obviously see that VVD (and others on the pitch) is a natural leader, he isn't captain now but he still has that leadership role, giving him the armband isn't going to change that.

Henderson does alot of the off the field stuff really well and he just gets the club, aside from that he is really popular with the players. I read somewhere a while back (I can't remember where, I have a feeling that it was another player talking about him) that when the club signs a new player Henderson makes a point of being the first one to meet them (and their family) shows them around the club and the city, introduces them to all the players and all the staff at Melwood and Anfield and tries to make them feel apart of the community of the club. It's not something that he has been asked to do by the manager or the club it's something that he has decided to do himself. I think that it's stuff like this and this type of attitude which is why he is so liked by the players and I think that he will remain club captain for the rest of his career with the club.

[ronanm]

You can obviously see that VVD (and others on the pitch) is a natural leader, he isn't captain now but he still has that leadership role, giving him the armband isn't going to change that.

Henderson does alot of the off the field stuff really well and he just gets the club, aside from that he is really popular with the players. I read somewhere a while back (I can't remember where, I have a feeling that it was another player talking about him) that when the club signs a new player Henderson makes a point of being the first one to meet them (and their family) shows them around the club and the city, introduces them to all the players and all the staff at Melwood and Anfield and tries to make them feel apart of the community of the club. It's not something that he has been asked to do by the manager or the club it's something that he has decided to do himself. I think that it's stuff like this and this type of attitude which is why he is so liked by the players and I think that he will remain club captain for the rest of his career with the club.

Yes. There was a great article about him last week (think it was on goal.com or something) on how he has always put the team first, right from his time at Sunderland. I think he has shown his worth on the pitch in the last few months in particular and am proud to have him as captain and leader.

[red g]

I wouldnt put it past Hendo to offer the captaincy when the time is right. VVD is obviously the heir apparent only a matter o time, but the time is not now imo.

[Buzzo]

Henderson being given the Freedom of Sunderland.

Sunderland-born hero Jordan Henderson in line for Freedom of the City after Liverpool Champions League glory

Link

[Liverpool]

poor bloke

[baitman]

Henderson being given the Freedom of Sunderland.



Link

And they said they couldnt give it away. This'll show the doubters

[Leyton388]

He is now officially a legend

Crazy Horse, Souness, Thommo, Stevie and Hendo.

Legends.

To think Bodgers wanted to sell him to Fulham. Glad we saw sense and sacked the idiot.

[Buzzo]

Made me well up reading that he asked Klopp and Milner to lift the trophy with him. What a remarkable lad.

How Jordan Henderson became Liverpool's leader culminating in Champions League glory

Jordan Henderson collapsed to his knees, exhausted and happy, before he sank to the turf completely."No one deserves this moment more than you," Adam Lallana ran over to tell his close friend as he lifted him to his feet, while tears fell from Jürgen Klopp's face as he embraced the 28-year-old, Liverpool's manager later saying: "Jordan Henderson is the captain of the 2019 Champions League winners. That is satisfying."

Dejan Lovren put his arm around the England international's shoulder, walking him over to the Liverpool supporters behind the goal that Divock Origi scored in to secure their sixth European Cup after a 2-0 victory over Tottenham, screaming "This is your f---ing captain, this is the f---ing man." Virgil van Dijk walked behind them, raising his hands high and pointing his fingers down at Henderson to underscore the Croatian's words.

The devotion of Liverpool's players and staff to making sure Henderson was centre stage was endearing to watch, but not surprising.

The sound of the final whistle at the Wanda Metropolitano confirmed him as a European Cup-winning captain, but on a wider scale, it felt like a full stop to the exhausting battle to prove he belongs at an elite level, let alone at Liverpool and on the biggest stage in club football. From overcoming Osgood-Schlatter disease, a growing-pains condition requiring regular treatment, to being "smaller and skinnier" than the other young hopefuls at Sunderland's academy, a place where he'd have to excel at everything just to get noticed, Henderson has been in fighter mode for two decades.

At 21, he was tagged an expensive flop after switching from Sunderland to Liverpool in 2011. A year later, he rejected being used as a makeweight in a transfer approach for Clint Dempsey, then at Fulham, to stay and force his way into Brendan Rodgers' plans. Former Premier League player Joey Barton accused him of "trying to impersonate legends" in 2015, while Alex Ferguson was critical of his gait in his autobiography.

Former Liverpool players weighed in over the years, too. Dietmar Hamann, a Reds midfielder from 1999 to 2006, said, "I think [Henderson is] a good player but whether he is a Liverpool captain, I'll leave that to other people." Stan Collymore, who played up front for Liverpool from 1995 to 1997, questioned Henderson's leadership in the past but recently acknowledged he was wrong.

A large portion of Liverpool's fan base has arguably been most unkind to the midfielder, too. Inside the club, however, Henderson is lionised, which was so emotively illustrated after the Champions League final victory in Madrid.

Simply put, he is the Reds' leader on every level.

"As a person, Hendo is one of the most fantastic [people] you can ever meet," Van Dijk, the world's most expensive defender and anchor of Liverpool's back four, told ESPN. "He has been putting the team before himself for years. What I like is that he uses everything he has experienced -- the lows, the criticism, the trouble with injuries -- to help others through similar situations.

"What he does gets overlooked because people think you wear the armband to look good in it and shout a lot and that's the job done. There is so much responsibility on the pitch and off the pitch: you have to think about everyone else before you get to yourself and Hendo is very skilled at that.

"If any young player wants to follow an example, it should be him. He is a fantastic leader who everyone respects so much at Liverpool, and I'm very happy that he is my captain."

Teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold, who seems destined to inherit the armband in the future, provided an equally strong appraisal.

"We wouldn't be where we are now without him," he told ESPN. "I'm speaking for everyone when I say massive thanks to Hendo for leading us here. The team is always his first thought: none of us do that more for Liverpool than Hendo. He shows on a daily basis that he deserves to be skipper: how he carries himself in training and around the place, the respect he has for everyone, whether it's Mo Salah or the cleaning staff.

"[Henderson] doesn't see anyone as bigger or more important than anyone else and that's a lesson to learn not just in football but life too. He is so valuable to the club and anyone at Melwood could speak for hours about just that."

Appreciation of Henderson isn't restricted to just the people at Melwood, Liverpool's training complex, either. Amid Henderson's emotional release at full-time, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino, in a typically classy move, headed right for the Liverpool captain. He put both his hands on Henderson's face, looked him in the eye and told him to enjoy the moment, that he'd earned this joy.

Rodgers once labelled the midfield as "a moral compass of the group" while at the Liverpool helm, and England manager Gareth Southgate believes that description extends to the national team as well.

"To have a player like Jordan really sets the standard for what we do," he told ESPN ahead of the UEFA Nations League finals (June 5-9, live on ESPN2, ESPN). "How he prepares for training, how he prepares for matches and the way he lives his life in general -- he doesn't just do his role perfectly, he has a positive impact on others to do the same.

"You can't have too many of those players as a manager."

Southgate spotlighted Henderson's technical abilities too, which are often overlooked. "He has an incredible range of passing, he is intelligent in the way he presses the ball, which is a huge part of the way Liverpool play and he is an excellent crosser of the ball," the Three Lions manager said.

"Henderson is a responsible player: he is tactically aware when another player goes out of position, he covers across. It's more than just his personal attributes and work rate, his technical qualities are important. He was very much in the frame to be England captain heading into the World Cup, but as soon as the decision was made, he was the first to congratulate Harry Kane.

"He was immense with his leadership throughout the tournament despite not wearing the armband. He has such humility and really great qualities as a person, which makes him such a big part of what we do."

On Saturday, with the defining moment of his career to come, Henderson was still trying to ensure others were in focus. As Liverpool walked onto the podium to celebrate their first trophy under Klopp and the first with Henderson as captain, he asked the manager and James Milner to do the honours of holding "Big Ears" aloft with him. Both immediately declined as they wanted Henderson to be at the forefront alone.

While having his face reflected on the most prestigious prize in the club game was the pinnacle of the midfielder's professional career, it was a more personal scene that will resonate. After proudly lifting the Champions League trophy over his head, Henderson walked over to his father, Brian, with the pair crying into each other's arms as they tightly hugged for a minute.

Before Christmas in 2013, the former policeman was diagnosed with throat cancer, initially keeping the news from his son so it wouldn't affect his football. As surgery approached to remove lymph nodes from both sides of his neck and a tumour from his tongue, Brian broke his silence to Henderson with the instruction "try to get man of the match in every game" and told him not to visit during the intensive radiotherapy treatment.

"He got it in four of the next five he played," the cancer survivor said in 2014. "People didn't realise the pressure he was under. I was so proud of him."

After their embrace on Saturday night, Brian shared the story of taking Henderson to the 2003 Champions League final at Old Trafford between AC Milan and Juventus. Aged 12, Jordan vowed to his dad that he would compete in the competition's climax one day. Henderson has never been one to just do the bare minimum, though, so he went one better and won it instead.

[Fosterbloke]

What a brilliant story - I've always been a big supporter of Henderson, I'm made up that he now gets to be mentioned among Liverpool's greatest.

He may not be a world class player but he's certainly a world class captain.

[Exiled_red]

As Liverpool walked onto the podium to celebrate their first trophy under Klopp and the first with Henderson as captain, he asked the manager and James Milner to do the honours of holding "Big Ears" aloft with him.

[frank the tank]

Crazy Horse, Souness, Thommo, Stevie and Hendo.

Legends.

To think Bodgers wanted to sell him to Fulham. Glad we saw sense and sacked the idiot.

Christ yeah I forgot about that..... It was a swap for Clint dempsey wasn't it. I ****ing hell...... Was it Jordans name in the envelope?????

[Norbs]

Christ yeah I forgot about that..... It was a swap for Clint dempsey wasn't it. I ****ing hell...... Was it Jordans name in the envelope?????

Wasnt even a swap, Hendo was to be make weight in a PX!

[Assassin]

Christ yeah I forgot about that..... It was a swap for Clint dempsey wasn't it. I ****ing hell...... Was it Jordans name in the envelope?????

Wasnt even a swap, Hendo was to be make weight in a PX!

****ing clit dempsey. bodgers what a ****ing chancer, without the sewer rat and Stevie G leading the charge we would have been in mid table. I have erased both the bodge and bodgers my recollection of Liverpool history. Those days did not exist