Jürgen Klopp can often display a breezy indifference to statistics but, while his team are on the verge of setting a record for the longest unbeaten run in Liverpool’s decorated history, a different fact caught his eye. Jordan Henderson will become the fourth player to make 300 Premier League appearances for Liverpool on Sunday, putting him in distinguished company alongside Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypiä. As Klopp noted, he is nevertheless already in uncharted territory.
“He surpassed Gareth Barry as the player with the most passes in the Premier League, is that right?” Klopp said. “I read that and he still has four or five years to go.”
Henderson’s tally stands at 17,002 and his manager, with deliberate understatement, said: “What it says about Hendo is he is an absolutely great and very important figure in this team. He is so incredibly valuable.”
There are other measures of the significance of a Premier and Champions League-winning captain. Take at least a point against West Ham and Liverpool’s undefeated sequence in all competitions will stretch to 26 games, one more than Bob Paisley’s class of 1982.
In another respect, Henderson is the Anfield almost Invincible. Liverpool suffered a series of defeats when he was an emergency centre-back last winter. But in the past four years, they have lost two league games when he has started in midfield; both to Manchester City, 2-1 in a January 2019 meeting defined by a remarkable goalline clearance from John Stones and 4-0 in July 2020, after Liverpool had clinched the title.
The last time anyone other than City took three Premier League points when Henderson began in his preferred position was at Tottenham in October 2017, a couple of months before Virgil van Dijk arrived to operate behind him.
Results may be an indirect indication of his influence, but an appropriate one. Henderson’s 299 games have yielded 40 assists and 28 goals, the most recent a lovely opener against Brighton last Saturday, but he has been essentially a team player, defined in part by his impact on the collective, by the points totals and the trophies. His contribution has been as crucial in the dressing room as on the pitch. “Hendo has been essential to all the things we achieved,” Klopp said. His captain’s character may be a reason why he loses so rarely.
A motivator of a manager seeks to gee others up but not Henderson. “His natural motivation is already at the limit,” he said. “You don’t have to put oil in the fire, there is enough fire there already. That’s Hendo.”
It is a reason why he was never tempted to pension his captain off. At 31, Henderson was afforded a four-year deal in the summer. Klopp never feared it would prompt a lapse into complacency. Rather, he appreciates Henderson’s role in creating a culture he deems special.
“I was not concerned that the new contract could stop him being a crazy devil from time to time on and off the pitch,” he said. “His mindset is made for winning things and I am really happy to have him here.”
A workhorse can be a work in progress, even in the autumn of his career. “Hendo is not old, he can still develop, he has to and he will and I will not stop helping him with that,” Klopp said.
As Liverpool’s greatest generation for three decades enter their 30s, Klopp sees scope for potential record-breakers to get better again. He is relying on Henderson to drive them on. “As long as these boys aren’t 40, we will improve them,” he said. “We need players like him at the club in the long term. These boys, with the quality, mindset and attitude of them, they set standards for all the rest.”
If the Henderson years have become a golden age at Anfield, and Klopp is determined to savour them when they are over, he is trying to extend an era with his brand of tough love. Kicking the losing feeling further into the past involves kicking backsides.
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“The way we work together, the things we do, how we inspire ourselves and each other: all these kinds of things make this a very special group,” he said. “And they will be considered in the future, looking back, as a very special group. I know this already. I don’t praise them or celebrate with them. I’m here to kick their butts from time to time. That’s what you do to make the next step.”