The decision to appoint Jordan Henderson as club captain was one that raised a few eyebrows, and one that not everybody was on board with as recently as a few months ago, but in recent weeks we have seen why it was an easy call for Jurgen Klopp to make.
On the pitch he has modified his role to one with less attacking responsibility for the benefit of the team, but off the pitch he has had a number of real "captain material" moments, another of which we saw on Monday night.
After a bad tackle by Ross Barkley saw only a yellow card shown from Mike Dean, we knew that there would be a lot of discussion over the incident due to the inconsistency around similar challenges in recent weeks, but when asked about the nature of the tackle, Henderson absolved Barkley of any malicious intent, putting the timing of the tackle down to the intensity of the match.
It was very well said.
Rec1107 by kikimusampasoccer
It was a slightly awkward question, but Henderson handled it well and gave a classy response that will no doubt be well received on the other half of Merseyside.
You might be friends off the pitch, but in a derby game it's nothing other than full commitment, and occasionally things like that will happen. He may have had a different view had he picked up a nasty injury, like he very well could have, but he didn't, so no hard feelings.
The referee, however, will surely have a few questions to answer.
