Jordan Henderson: I Didn’t Think We Performed Well Enough

Sunday’s hyped up match against Manchester United turned out to be a really scrappy and honestly terrible battle. Liverpool managed to scrape out a point from Old Trafford and stay atop of the table, with the gap between first and second thinning to six points. There were a lot of things that arguably went wrong with the match (refereeing decisions aside...) but one most important one was just that the Reds didn’t perform as well as Champions of Europe should be performing. Adam Lallana came off the bench and was able to find the equalizer, but captain Jordan Henderson wasn’t quite impressed with their form overall.

Henderson spoke to the club website following the match, and first was asked whether he felt a point was a fair result, and this is what he had to say: “Probably. I didn’t think we performed well enough in the first half, not our usual selves really, especially with the ball.

“We could have been a lot better but I thought second half was a lot better. We changed it a little bit tactically, which helped us, and I thought the longer the game went on we were pushing for that winner, and towards that last five to 10 minutes I thought we were going to get it.

“Ox came close with a great strike with his left foot and we kept pushing but, overall, a fair reflection of the game would have to be a point.

“But, like I say, we have got to be much better for the 90 minutes. I was disappointed we couldn’t come here and put on a top performance because I felt as though we could have done that today.

“When you can’t win, you don’t lose, and that’s the sign of a good team. But we’ve got to learn from the game today and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The important thing was that while he came on to replace Henderson, Lallana immediately made an impact and scored his first goal for the Reds since 2017 after his whole career injury thing. It’s also no secret that Henderson and Lallana are close friends so even though they switched roles on the day, Henderson was delighted to see his bestie bro be the one to snatch that point.

“I thought he was brilliant when he came on,” added the captain. “I’m delighted for him and he deserves a bit of luck and he’s got us a point.

“It could be a big point, you never know, so I’m over the moon for him and hopefully he can keep contributing to the team and I thought the other two lads who came on [Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita] were fantastic as well.”

Liverpool have a chance soon enough to rebuild their confidence as they travel to Belgium midweek for Champions League action against K. R. C. Genk and then back home again to face Spurs at Anfield.