Henderson amazed by Reds’ options

LIVERPOOL captain Jordan Henderson admits the midfield options Jurgen Klopp now has at his disposal are great for the manager, although not so much for the players competing for those positions.

The England international returned to the starting lineup, having been left out for the Champions League win in Genk, and scored his first goal at Anfield since December 2015 to kick-start a 2-1 comeback win against Tottenham.

Klopp picked Henderson in his tried and tested trio of Fabinho and Georginio Wijnaldum despite many fans wanting the more attacking Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or Naby Keita — or both — to play instead.

Against that background, Henderson’s name appearing on the team-sheet always provokes an immediate negative online response, but the 29-year-old remains a key player for Klopp.

“We have got a lot of good midfielders and we’ve got different players that can do different things,” said Henderson, whose side face Arsenal in arguably the pick of the Carabao Cup ties tonight.

“That’s good for the manager because it’ll depend on certain games and certain teams. But I feel as though we’re all performing to a high level, and we’ve just got to continue pushing each other in training and in games.

“Ultimately, we all want the same thing, we all want to be successful and help each other.”

Part of the criticism levelled at Henderson is that he is not creative enough, and he certainly does not score enough goals with just 26 in 337 games for the club.

His equaliser against Spurs was perfect timing then.

“I don’t really care who scores as long as we win,” he added. “People will analyse and say we want more goals from midfield but ultimately if the forwards score then what does it matter?

“As long as we win, the midfielders can contribute in other ways. Now and again it’s nice to get on the scoresheet, but for us it’s about performance, it’s about working together as a team, and it doesn’t matter who scores.”

In middle: Jordan Henderson relishes the battle for a shirt