Manchester City midfielder Jack Grealish has defended Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson, calling him a ‘brilliant’ player.
Grealish sat down with BBC Sport to look through some of his World Cup moments so far. Asked to comment on Henderson’s intense celebration with Jude Bellingham after scoring against Senegal, the City man went out of his way to praise Liverpool’s captain.
“They look like they want to knock each other out there! Two brilliant players honestly, and brilliant characters as well. Obviously, Jude speaks for himself. I feel like Hendo sometimes gets a lot of stick. He’s got us to a World Cup semi final, a Euros final,” said the 27-year-old.
If this World Cup has been good for anything, it has been alerting neutral fans to the fact that, yes, Jordan Henderson is actually a superb footballer. We knew it all along.
Stick or twist time for Southgate and England
Having seemingly settled on a first choice midfield for this year’s tournament, it will be interesting to see Gareth Southgate’s next team sheet.
With respect to the teams that England have already played, Saturday’s quarter final with France is a big step up.
Will Southgate stick with the Declan Rice/Bellingham/Henderson triumvirate that has been so successful? Or will he revert to his cautious ways and stick an extra man in defence? Should he go for the latter choice to combat Kylian Mbappe, Henderson will likely be the man to miss out.
In that scenario, it would probably be fair enough. Bellingham is the team’s outstanding midfielder and Rice’s skillset as a holder is difficult to replicate,
But take Henderson out of the team and you’re losing such a lot against top-class opposition. As good as Bellingham is, he’s still relatively inexperienced. And for all of Rice’s qualities, he’s never played against the likes of Mbappe in the Champions League.
Of course, Kylian isn’t going to be dropping into the middle of the park too much. But if you can stifle Adrien Rabiot, Antoine Griezmann and co, you can cut off the supply line to him.
Henderson has been around the block enough times since his £20m move to Liverpool to know how to do that. He can also help get up and down the right-hand side where Mbappe is likely to operate.
So, Southgate has a decision to make. If it were us, we’d keep the Hendo renaissance going, no doubt. Turn in another performance and the last of doubters will go very quiet indeed.
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