Stuart Downing & Jordan Henderson Two Reasons For The Problems At Liverpool

So coming down to the end of the season I can see a few reasons and players why Liverpool have slipped up. At the end of the day, Liverpool are a very proud and historical club and do not like being badmouthed, so I shouldn’t really go too deep but the problem started when a few young English players joined like Stuart Downing and Jordan Henderson.

They just aren’t exciting and didn’t come with a buzz behind them, Kenny Dalglish lost out on Ashley Young and took Downing, although Downing has a fantastic left foot he didn’t come with the same Buzz behind him as he was destined to leave Aston Villa, even though I thought he was a very prolific player and contributed well to the seasons he played.

His delivery was brilliant and he shone throughout the team along with players like Ashley Young, Jamies Milner and Gabriel Agbonlahor. Personally I think leaving Aston Villa was the worst choice for Stuart Downing, he had just left his youth club Middlesborough to join them and had a good three seasons, inconsistent at times but never the less he was a good player, he should have been the player that stuck by them and continued to play on a regular basis and he was getting a good 90 mins every game.

He left Aston Villa and joined Liverpool, where he has played 31 games scored none, assisted none and had a total of 62 shots. The stats speak for themselves, he hasn’t done well, he had a few average games at times where he shown promise and made a few chances but other then that he hasn’t done much, the most important thing you have to do in the Premier League is be consistent, he has been far off that, every time I watch him play he seems to be sturdy and doesn’t look comfortable on the ball, the usual Stuart Downing for Aston Villa who would burst down the wing and get a cross in, has seen him cut inside and play a sloppy ball to one of the Midfielders, on plenty of occasions he has picked the wrong ball and given it away.

What he needs is time to get back on his feet, more consistent playing time and the fans to get behind him, one of the reasons the fans don’t get behind him is because of his defensive work-rate. It’s simple, he just doesn’t get back whatsoever and when he does fails to make simple tackles which should be made with ease! If you are playing for a club like Liverpool then work rate is key to get the fans behind you because Liverpool fans love a player who works hard.

Now onto Jordan Henderson, I think Kenny Dalglish jumped at the chance of buying an English player with potential, but the key is in the word ‘Potential’ people mistake potential for actual skill, potential is what they can do if they work hard and put their all into everygame which he definatly doesn’t do.

He has played 42 games in total for Liverpool this season and scored a total of one goal which is very dissapointing for a player with such promise. The problem is here is when he was playing for Sunderland he was a talisman and a player that the players could feed off, when you join a club like Liverpool you have plenty of players to feed off, for example Gerrard, Maxi Rodrigez, Lucas and Charlia Adam. These are all very dominant players who like to pick the ball up from deep and play out wide, Jordan Henderson plays wide right in an attacking formation so he doesn’t get a lot of the ball but when he does he fails to provide.

These players need to perform to turn Liverpool around in the league, or others need to come in to replace them.