Liverpool's Jordan Henderson recalls a day to forget vs. Crystal Palace
Richard JollyNov 21, 2014, 05:48 PM
It was the day a dream died, the place where memories of the worst kind were made. Selhurst Park, May 5. Jordan Henderson won't forget. The scars have not healed. They never will. Football's capacity to deliver ecstasy and agony was compressed into the space of an extraordinary second half. Luis Suarez went from scoring to crying as the Premier League crown Liverpool had longed for first seemed tantalisingly close, only to be decisively removed from their grasp by a 9-minute capitulation.
They led Crystal Palace 3-0, aware that title rivals Manchester City had two winnable home games remaining and a superior goal difference. Their cavalier instincts kicked in. They looked to turn a win into a rout and lost their lead. 3-3. It is a scoreline that still resonates because theydidn't take the three points.
"You don't see many days like that in football," Henderson told ESPN. "It was a strange game. I felt as though we were comfortable. We were winning 3-0, maybe a little bit too eager to go and score four and five to make the goal difference up.
"But it all changed so quickly when they scored the first goal. You could sense the crowd got behind them, and then when they got the second, it was a real tough time and they ended up getting the third.
"It was a real low point for all of us as a team, one you will never forget. You will always remember that pain that we felt after that game."
Liverpool revisit Selhurst Park on Sunday, returning to the same dressing rooms, the same pitch, the same corner of South London. There are marked differences, though, and not just because they ended that game as league leaders six months ago and reside in the wrong half of the table now. Henderson is available, for starters.
He had a watching brief that May night. The bare facts are that he played 35 league games last season. He was on the winning side in each of the final 11. Yet, in the trio he missed, Liverpool dropped five points, losing to Chelsea and drawing with Palace. Had the indispensable Henderson not received the only red card of his career against Manchester City on April 13, incurring a three-match ban, perhaps Liverpool would be champions now.
"It was frustrating for me not to be able to help my teammates at a crucial time of the season. That is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life," the midfielder admitted. His stretching lunge at City's Samir Nasri may have been reckless, but it certainly wasn't malicious. "It was so late in the game," he recalled. "I felt as though I had to make the tackle but I was just a little bit too eager and obviously disappointed to get the red card because then I missed the next three games."
It was a rare setback in a breakthrough season. Henderson ended it as an automatic choice in both the Liverpool and England sides. It represented a rapid turnaround in his fortunes from the time in 2012 when Brendan Rodgers tried to off-load him to Fulham, when Liverpool's new manager preferred to pick players such as Jonjo Shelvey, Nuri Sahin and Suso. "Football changes very quickly and you have just got to keep working as hard as you can because you never know what is around the corner," Henderson said.
In his case, a shift in his status was reflected in an elevation from the ranks. When Daniel Agger left, he was confirmed as Liverpool's vice-captain. He is Steven Gerrard's deputy -- a role that, for years, belonged to club icon Jamie Carragher.
"It is a big responsibility for me," said the 24-year-old. "But it is one that I enjoy and one that I relish. Hopefully I can bring the best out of some of the players and help Stevie wherever I can." And then, when Rodgers confirmed Gerrard would be rested for the Champions League tie against Real Madrid, it appeared Henderson would have the honour of captaining Liverpool against the European champions.
Not so, however. He joined Liverpool's leader on the star-studded bench. "You are playing in the Bernabeu against Real Madrid and everybody wants to play, but at the end of the day some people have got to miss out," he said phlegmatically. "Unfortunately on that day, I was one of them."
Yet the subsequent outcry was another reflection of his progress. These days, he is a fixture in Liverpool's strongest side. It was not always thus. There was a time when his presence on the team-sheet drew criticism, when his 16 million pound fee brought accusations of frivolous and misguided spending. So, after a summer in which Liverpool paid 117 million pounds for nine newcomers who have made stuttering starts to life at Anfield, he is in a position to empathise with players such as Mario Balotelli, Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren. Henderson has been there. He was branded an expensive misfit, the big-money buy who wasn't good enough to wear the famous red shirt.
"There's a lot of younger players coming into a club like Liverpool," he said. "There's big expectation. I have been through it myself when I first came to the club. It is a big shock, no matter what age you are, and you have got to try and adapt to it as best as you can."
After an unconvincing arrival, Henderson has become a role model, going from unwanted to integral in two years. Yet even in a personal success story, a disappointment lingers in the mind. And now, as Henderson heads for Selhurst Park, it is with thoughts of May's collapse at Crystal Palace still prominent. They refuse to go away.