Even though he took a great step towards proving his doubters wrong in the 1-1 draw with cross town rivals Everton on Saturday, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has come in for some criticism in recent weeks with a string of underwhelming performances only serving to highlight the Reds on-going struggles.
While a shift in thinking is something that could very well be considered by Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers in the near future, Jordan Henderson has leapt to his captain’s defence. “Stevie’s still one of the best players in the Premier League” said the newly appointed Reds vice-captain. “There’s no doubting his quality. A lot of teams have been putting someone to man-mark him, which shows just how good he is. I don’t think he deserves any criticism. He’s been the best player this league’s probably seen in a long time and still is.”
The Anfield outfit looked on course to claim their first league win since downing Tottenham Hotspur in spectacular fashion at White Hart Lane, but a equalizer from Phil Jagielka deep in injury time saw the two sides share the spoils.
“It’s disappointing. The performance was very good, back to the level we expect” explained Henderson. “The intensity was good all over the pitch, we worked hard, we were more fluent going forward and we made chances as well. And also we defended really well throughout the game so that was pleasing. We did quite a lot of work during the week on defending and I think we showed just how well we can defend, so that needs to be the case from now on.”
