There were times early in Jordan Henderson’s Liverpool career, when the team were stuttering and his own performances fell short of expectations, when occasionally the harsh words would cut deep. When he would let the setbacks, the background chatter, the deluge of negativity, get to him. And perhaps the most telling measure of the journey he has taken is that where once Henderson was cowed by criticism, now he seeks it out. For the Premier League-winning captain and the new Footballer of the Year, your opinions are his strength.
Speaking after receiving his award from the Football Writers’ Association, another trophy to add to his bulging cabinet, Henderson admitted that the path to glory had been anything but smooth. Even now, having won everything there is to win, there remains a large and stubborn constituency of the English footballing public who will never quite rate him, who will never shake their opinion of him as a reliable but limited midfielder. That will never change. What has changed is how he deals with it.
“That’s a big part of life, really,” he said. “You’re going to have setbacks, you’re going to have criticism, but it’s how you react to those situations. Use it as energy, use it as fuel to motivate you to come back stronger, to improve. That’s all I’ve ever tried to do.”
Had it affected him, the fierce disapproval he occasionally attracted during his early days at Anfield, as a £20m signing in a stuttering team? “I think at times it can,” he said. “You understand criticism is part and parcel of football, but when you are a young player it is harder to deal with when you’re not used to it. Especially at a big club like Liverpool, where the expectation level can affect you. I have found ways to deal with it through experience. Now I look more for criticism, as fuel to drive me forward.”
It is why, for all the frenzied debate surrounding Jürgen Klopp’s side, the scale of their achievement, their place in history, Henderson is largely uninterested in ideas of praise or credit. “I’m not really bothered,” he said. “Criticism, praise, it’s not about that. The most important thing for me is the team, the players, the manager. They’re the most important people for me.”
And so for Henderson, the greatest individual honour of his career was a moment to be shared. The importance of these sorts of awards can often be overindulged a touch, but it is a measure of how highly Henderson regarded this one that he insisted on passing it around the squad, and was distraught to be told that he had to return it so it could go back to the engraver. “You could pick anyone in that dressing room who would deserve it,” he said. “So for me, it is about receiving this on behalf of them.”
The criteria of the FWA award stipulate that the Footballer of the Year must lead by “precept and example”. And there can be little doubt that Henderson has earned this accolade ahead of the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Trent Alexander-Arnold as much for his exploits off the pitch as on it. It was Henderson who took the lead at the height of the coronavirus crisis to assemble the Premier League captains in support of the Players Together initiative, raising millions of pounds for NHS charities.
“That was a real positive over the last few months,” he said. “It is something we are all very proud of. Put all the rivalry aside and do something for the greater good of the country. If you look at Black Lives Matter, that was very much player-led. I think we have started something really special. If there’s stuff in the future that might help people, I’m sure we’ll look to do so.”
On the pitch, Liverpool’s title defence begins in just seven weeks’ time. Not much time for reflection, or indeed recuperation, but according to Henderson the squad are ready to go again. “I’m ready now,” he insisted. “The day I woke up after lifting the trophy [on Wednesday night], it was about the next challenge. I love what the gaffer said: ‘We will not defend the trophy, we will attack it’.
“That is the mentality we have shown over the past year. I’ve listened to people who have won it in the past and they say it is even harder to retain the Premier League trophy. So the challenge starts now.”