Roy Hodgson has praised Jordan Henderson’s meteoric rise to prominence at club and international level, describing the Liverpool midfielder as a key member of England’s leadership group before their European Championship qualifier against Lithuania.
England will attempt to secure a fifth win in five Euro 2016 qualifiers at Wembley on Friday – before a friendly against Italy in Turin next Tuesday – and Hodgson has called up Harry Kane to the full squad for the first time following his impressive season for Tottenham.
Henderson, who has been in excellent form for his club, has been tipped to succeed Steven Gerrard as Liverpool captain in the summer when Gerrard departs for LA Galaxy. He has also consolidated his place in the England midfield despite, according to Hodgson, being regarded by many as a “waste of money” when he left Sunderland in 2011 for £20m.
The 24-year-old captained the Under-21s at the ill-fated 2013 European Championship – when the team finished bottom of the group and pointless – having been called up to the seniors for Euro 2012. He started against Italy and Uruguay at the World Cup last year and Hodgson believes his qualities are now shining through.
“His rise has been fairly meteoric,” said Hodgson. “It wasn’t so long ago that I picked him in 2012 for the Euros, that decision was vilified. People were saying he wasn’t getting into the Liverpool team, he was being described as a waste of money. Then he went to the Under-21 tournament a year later and got an awful lot of criticism captaining the England Under-21 team. No one had a good word to say about him.
“His rise has been quite meteoric really, although he’s been around for a long time it’s only in the last year that people have started to say: ‘This boy is a good player, this lad has got a lot of qualities.’
“
“I think as time goes on, the responsibility that he is being given now at Liverpool by Brendan [Rodgers] will help him. Liverpool’s success will rub off on him as well because he’s been an important part of it.”
Of Henderson’s potential promotion to Liverpool captain, Hodgson said: “If he [Rodgers] does make him captain, that’s great and we’ll all be happy. If he doesn’t, that won’t affect his leadership qualities as far as I’m concerned. He’s in our leadership group and will still be, in my opinion, someone that needs to take on leadership responsibilities when he comes to England.”
It remains to be seen if Henderson is one of the England contingent who Hodgson releases from international duty after the Lithuania game before the friendly against the Azzurri. Henderson, one of four Liverpool players in a squad that includes only two goalkeepers, could be rested with Hodgson expecting to have discussions with various club managers in the coming days about certain individuals who have endured a heavy schedule this year.
The England manager insisted there would be no mass exodus after the Lithuania match, but that some withdrawals could benefit other players in the squad. “We don’t want tug of wars any more than the clubs want tug of wars,” said Hodgson. “These players want to play for England. But they also want to play for their clubs and want a good relationship with their club manager. We work very hard to avoid it [club versus country rows].
“There can’t be a mass exodus either, because Italy is an important game. It’s always a possibility that if there is a player who for some particular reason would benefit from going back to his club and not staying on, and if I had other players that I wanted to look at, it could even work out very well and suit me very well. If there is an individual or two that could benefit from going back, and we can cover that position quite easily, then it could happen.”
