DBasia.news – Early in his career with Liverpool, Jordan Henderson was considered blunt. But this did not last long, there was an incident with Luis Suarez that made him into a dangerous attacker.
This was revealed in the conversation of former Manchester United defender Gary Neville with Jamie Carragher who spent his career at Liverpool. Carragher confirmed Neville’s assessment of Henderson looked soft when he was recruited from Sunderland in 2011.
“Yeah, I can understand that view,” Carragher said as quoted by TeamTalk.
Carragher recalled, when Jordan Henderson several times seemed inclined to surrender when tackled by the opponent and that also made Liverpudlians doubted his character.
One of the figures who then made Jordan Henderson’s character no longer soft was Luis Suarez. Carragher said, at that time Henderson claimed difficult to be accepted by certain players in the Liverpool squad.
“He had a little fuss with Luis Suarez, they exchanged comments in training and I muttered, ‘well, this is what I like’,” he said remembering the moment Henderson began to dare to reply.
“Because at that time Luis Suarez was our best player and Luis was frustrated with a pass or something (from Henderson), and for him (Henderson) to dare to defend himself when he was 20 or 21 years old, showing it was full of meaning. And that indicated what he had experienced it, to the point that, ‘I don’t care anymore, I’m ready to talk loudly to the best player in the club if he dares to me.”
After the fuss of Luis Suarez, Carragher also recalled that Jordan Henderson’s mental strength was again tested when Brendan Rodgers arrived as manager. At that time Rodgers seemed to pull Henderson off the first team and wanted to send him to Fulham.
“He was upset with it, but did not take it for granted. He did a reply and that’s where the character appears. And, in my opinion, if you have such character and personality in yourself, good things will eventually come,” said Carragher.
Following the departure of Steven Gerrard in June 2015, Jordan Henderson was appointed as captain for Liverpool. Carragher said Henderson lived it well; not hesitate to reprimand their own colleagues when needed, but also go ahead to defend them in front of the referee.
“The reward now is to become Liverpool’s first captain in a span of 30 years, who will lift the league trophy after previously winning the Champions League,” Carragher said.
“When he first came to the club, no one would believe he could do that. But never underestimate people with such a disposition, who turned out to have the character and determination to change people’s views of him.”