Jordan Henderson lifted yet another trophy on Saturday as Liverpool beat Flamengo in the Club World Cup final. His performance thoroughly deserved it.
Henderson was everywhere in Doha, keeping the midfield as solid as he could while playing some key passes. This is despite the captain playing in the deeper role that many thought was behind him. He’s only there to fill the Fabinho void, after all.
It was a game where he didn’t quite have the ideal midfield ahead of him, either. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita has their moments but, by and large, they struggled to control the game.
Defensively, in particular, they were unable to cover for the full-backs, while they didn’t have the physicality in defense to hurt Flamengo’s attacks.
Liverpool missed Gini Wijnaldum, honestly. Still, Henderson, as the holding midfielder, kept things as solid as possible. He was also the one to drop back and cover for Trent Alexander-Arnold and, on occasion, Joe Gomez. He was also willing to press, too, in an all-round defence performance.
And despite all that, he still influenced things going forward. His passing was adventurous as he got the team moving, while he was desperately unlucky not to find a winner.
Henderson hit a brilliant effort from 20 yards that Flamengo goalkeeper Diego Alves somehow tipped over the bar. It would have been a fitting way to win the trophy, given Henderson’s performance. Fortunately, he did find a way to influence the winner.
Flamengo couldn’t stop Henderson
And the goal, scored by Roberto Firmino, summed up exactly why this was a ‘captain’s performance’. Henderson wasn’t going to be stopped.
The captain got the ball outside his own area and fired a pass into Mohamed Salah. Salah, however, couldn’t do anything with it and lost the ball back into Liverpool’s half.
Henderson stormed forward, picked up the loose ball, and tried again. This time he played a wonderful pass in behind that cut out one defender and gave Sadio Mane a chance to create something.
Mane found Firmino, Firmino found the net, and Liverpool were on their way to being world champions.
Henderson hasn’t always had it easy since he arrived for £20m in 2011. But this performance showed exactly how he shook off those doubts to become one of Liverpool’s most successful captains.
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