Premier League 2019/20

[Hobo]

The set up for the presentation was really well done. I enjoyed Gini livestreaming the whole thing himself.

Still doesn't seem quite real that they did it.

 

[DavidMarrio]

"it's the first time I've ever wanted a red ribbon, it's always been United before, f*ckin wankers..."

James Milner 22/07/20

[Szumi]

Jordan Henderson: 2019/2020 FWA Footballer of the Year

 

❤️❤️❤️

[Marcos]

4 minutes ago, It's Pronounced Zoom-E said:

Jordan Henderson: 2019/2020 FWA Footballer of the Year

 

❤️❤️❤️

You would guess it's been weighted on off-the-pitch reasons as well, because you could quite easily say he's not been the best player in the league (De Bruyne), nor the best Liverpool player (Mane) nor the best Liverpool midfielder (Fabinho) or even the best Henderson in the league (Dean)!  However, given Marcus Rashford finished in the top five, I guess it's to do with non-footballing reasons as well.  

[Gazz]

It's the Football Writer's Association, they like to pick someone from slightly out of left field to demonstrate their intellectual superiority over the masses who think football is all about goals, money, cars, and sliding into the DMs of a 19 year old Instagram model.

[DavidMarrio]

People underestimate how important Henderson is for the team to function as it does. There have been times he has been missing and we just haven't looked the same. 

He's not the best individual on the team but he's an important player in the team. 

I'm all for it tbh purely for the needle of all the people who'll be crying over him winning it. Like when they used to moan about him being in the England squad 

[mattu29]

Its a weird one, as according to the prem app, hes only started 26 games, being subbed on 4 times and off 10 times, which for a captain, is odd to me, as usually theyre the ones guaranteed to play the full 90 every game theyre available, and hes certainly one of the fittest players on the pitch so not one to get tired like lazier players.

Fully understand hes a key cog in the system when he plays, but those stats surprised me.

[TCO]

Henderson is a very good player and deserves the plaudits he's getting. I think FWA takes a lot into account and his organising of the captains to support the NHS probably helped his cause a lot here too, so fair play to him. If anybody says he doesn't deserve to be in the England squad, then they're automatically talking shite.

If anyone other than De Bruyne wins PFA player of the year then it'll be a travesty for him though. He's on another level to anybody else at the moment.

[Colly]

5 minutes ago, mattu29 said:

Its a weird one, as according to the prem app, hes only started 26 games, being subbed on 4 times and off 10 times, which for a captain, is odd to me, as usually theyre the ones guaranteed to play the full 90 every game theyre available, and hes certainly one of the fittest players on the pitch so not one to get tired like lazier players.

Fully understand hes a key cog in the system when he plays, but those stats surprised me.

Hasn't he had a couple of little injuries? 

[Nerf]

9 minutes ago, Colly said:

Hasn't he had a couple of little injuries? 

Yeah, I don't know what point he was trying to make. Henderson has played 30/37 league games so far this season, despite the odd injury and Klopp rotating midfield heavily.

[Colly]

He gets bonus points from me anyway for being the only footballer in the world whose real voice is funnier than his Athletico Mince one. 

[Adam]

Henderson is one of those players who will just always be underrated. Quite a lot of people have never got over the fact his big-money move from Sunderland felt like an overpayment at a time when Liverpool were doing it often.

The other night he lifted the Premier League trophy, having done the same with the Champions League last year. As an integral part of a brilliant team. Strange that the likes of Lampard and Gerrard are revered and Henderson isn't when there are many similarities between them.

Perhaps some form of mid-2000s rose-tinted spectacles? Football feels more nostalgic and magical for many of our generation looking at that time, but the reality is there is so much wonderful football being played now by players and teams viewed in a less fashionable or glamorous light.

[METALMAN]

I don’t think its unreasonable to put Gerrard on a level above Henderson. Henderson is a very fine player but has undoubtedly benefited from being surrounded by excellent teammates.

For huge spells of his career Gerrard played in a not very good team and would often win games by himself. Henderson didn’t do that when he played in a weaker Liverpool team, and he hasn’t needed to lately because he’s in a good team.

Not saying Henderson doesn’t deserve the award, but for me he’s still not really near the standards Steven Gerrard set.

[gunnar hendershow]

I have no problem with Henderson winning an award. KDB is the best player in the Premier League by far, but you can make a case that in this particular season Henderson had a greater positive impact on his team than anyone else. And then there's the stuff away from the field as well.

The stretch of games when Liverpool didn't have Henderson they looked very mortal. And I'm going to ignore everything after the restart since the title was all but clinched already and nobody wants to get hurt playing all-but-meaningless games.

I'll agree with the point @Adam made about us looking back with rose-tinted glasses on players of the past. The generation older than ours does the same with the stars of the 80s and early 90s. There's a lot of great players today, and while Henderson hasn't had the stretch Gerrard in 05-06 in willing his team to the Champions League and FA Cup, Henderson has led them to the Champions League and Premier League crowns. It's a different dynamic, because people can try to make an argument Henderson could have been replaced with a comparable player but nobody will make that argument about Gerrard. Mainly since Henderson doesn't show up on the stat sheet or the highlight footage as significantly. But that's misleading, and his impact got shown when he wasn't in the squad due to injury earlier this year.

Anyway, to borrow an American sports analogy. De Bruyne should win "best player" but Henderson should win "most valuable player".

[The Lusophone]

Henderson is underrated because all English midfielders are considered bad in a post-Gerrard/Scholes/Lampard world. Comparatively, Gerrard was overrated.

[Adam]

7 minutes ago, metalman said:

I don’t think its unreasonable to put Gerrard on a level above Henderson. Henderson is a very fine player but has undoubtedly benefited from being surrounded by excellent teammates.

For huge spells of his career Gerrard played in a not very good team and would often win games by himself. Henderson didn’t do that when he played in a weaker Liverpool team, and he hasn’t needed to lately because he’s in a good team.

Not saying Henderson doesn’t deserve the award, but for me he’s still not really near the standards Steven Gerrard set.

I won't disagree with you there, Gerrard at times dragged Liverpool along with him. But there are plenty of things you can draw a comparison between them with - as players both have/had a great engine, true leadership ability on the field, a penchant for long-range goals, physically combative, they've both been servants of Liverpool FC for a long time winning plenty of trophies, and now Henderson has lifted the one that always eluded Gerrard.

They're both experienced England internationals who played key roles in decent-to-good runs at major tournaments too. So why, in the general consciousness, do people view Gerrard as a legendary player, and Henderson seemingly an average one?

[9 to 5]

2 minutes ago, MadJack said:

Henderson is underrated because all English midfielders are considered bad in a post-Gerrard/Scholes/Lampard world. Comparatively, Gerrard was overrated.

Hardly. All three were world class.

[Gazz]

3 minutes ago, Adam said:

They're both experienced England internationals who played key roles in decent-to-good runs at major tournaments too. So why, in the general consciousness, do people view Gerrard as a legendary player, and Henderson seemingly an average one?

Narrative and nostalgia.

Gerard was a one-club man, a Scouser who dragged his lesser team mates to a European trophy through sheer force of personality, a leader, pashun, boyhood dream, and all that Roy of the Rovers style nonsense etc. whereas Henderson plays a vital, but more 'invisible' role while his team mates get all the glory and the paper column inches, isn't local, isn't a one club man and plays in a team full of leaders managed by a popular and charismatic leader.

Helps as well that every player becomes twice as good upon retirement and gets even better every ten years.

[Lineker]

Next season will run September 12-May 23.

[gunnar hendershow]

Just now, Lineker said:

Next season will run September 12-May 23.

World class players are quite simply not getting a breather between now and the summer of 2023 at the earliest it would seem.