Former Manchester United full-back and now pundit Gary Neville was full of raise for Liverpool‘s Jordan Henderson, who scored the solitary goal against Swansea City to help the Reds get a crucial win and set up the encounter with Manchester United perfectly.
Despite being underwhelming for large parts of the game, Liverpool managed to dominate proceedings when it counted and Henderson scored the only goal – his third in three matches – to hand his side three points.
Neville, who has worked closely with the 24 year old in his role as England coach, said that the former Sunderland player is a leader both at club and international level.
a He is not frightened to pull people out and talk, that is why he has the captaina s armband,a commented Neville. a He is one of the leaders in the dressing room at Liverpool and he is the same with England.
a He has a massive conscience in terms of caring about his game and practicing on the training ground. I remember last year seeing a big change in him in terms of training and practicing free-kicks and set pieces.
“You saw him taking set pieces tonight with Steven Gerrard in the middle. Who would have thought that would happen two years ago?a
Former Liverpool defender and fellow pundit for Sky Sports Jamie Carragher also hailed the England international.
a When he first came in he struggled and there was talk of him getting moved on to Fulham and that Brendan Rodgers actually wanted to sell him,a Carragher said on Monday Night Football. a But he wanted to stay and fight for his place and hea s now one of the best players in the team.
a He is the type of lad as a manager you want in your team. He is never happy with what he is doing, he always wants to improve and, with the improvement we have seen in the last two years, he is now one of the top midfielders in the country.a
Henderson said after the game that he needed to improve on his goals and assists tally.
He said, a I personally need to improve on my assists and goals this season and I feel as though I’m doing that, but the most important thing was the three points and the momentum and hopefully we can keep that going.a