NO SLIP-UPS! Thatagonising
Henderson is one of just three survivors of Anfield day and although it still hurts he insists this Liverpool team is better equipped to deal with the title-chasing pressure
THEY are the four words to have haunted Liverpool over five long years.
“Oh, and Gerrard’s slipped.” They will be repeated this weekend, that second in 2014 which has come to represent the moment they lost a long-yearned for title to Manchester City.
Now we are back. Chelsea visit Anfield again. Finally, another chance to end the pain of that wait for a Premier League title.
With perfect symmetry, City also visit Crystal Palace, the same opponents from that same weekend in April five years ago. There are just three survivors from the Reds squad which lost out. One is back-up keeper Simon Mignolet, another is Daniel Sturridge, who’s had one start this year.
The third is Jordan Henderson, the man who replaced Steven Gerrard as skipper, the midfielder who is driving this crusade, the first chance for title redemption since 2014.
Henderson missed the game against Chelsea in
2014 after being sent off at the end of an epic showdown with City two weeks earlier. His absence was pivotal. The memory is still raw. There is still a sense of what might have been, as the star – who was brilliant that season – wonders if his presence could have changed the game against Chelsea, and with it destiny. “I try to use that time as an experience and try to help the lads in the best way I can,” he said. So desperate to get over the line this time? “That’s what everyone wants – you want to win trophies, especially when you are at this football club.
“It was tough to miss the games at a crucial time. For me, it’s just another thing I’ve used to keep going and channel all my energy into keep winning games and being successful for Liverpool.”
Henderson (right) can still recall being in the stand, watching that night, as Chelsea frustrated the home team by kicking the ball out of play repeatedly – in the first 20 minutes, there were only six minutes of actual action.
His emotions? “I was on edge big time,” he said. “I could sense it with the crowd too, when they were wasting time in the first few minutes. It wasn’t nice to watch.
“I’m not a good watcher anyway. It was tough being suspended for such a big game and for Palace and Norwich too. I’m more nervous watching than when I’m actually on the pitch.”
It was a horrible, spoiling Mourinho performance that afternoon. Ugly. And it rankles. “Chelsea came to do a job and did it well. I suppose things like that happen in football,” he said.
Yet there is a sense of a different time, a different Liverpool and Henderson added:
“We had the belief then, but I think the biggest difference is the clean sheets and the defensive record.
“We conceded a few goals then, even though we might have been winning games. We weren’t as strong as we would have liked to have been.
“I don’t like to compare. It’s a totally different team. We’re conceding a lot fewer goals which is a big thing in the Premier League.
“We just need to keep going with the clean sheets, as we all know the goals we can score with the quality we have got.”