‘Cannot be undervalued’: Rio Ferdinand now believes Liverpool need ‘brilliant’ player back in the team ASAP

Add as preferred source on Google

Liverpool returned to winning ways last night with a 2-1 win over Dutch side Ajax.

Mohamed Salah and Joel Matip scored the goals that earned the Reds their first Champions League points of the season.

Speaking on BT Sport, Rio Ferdinand addressed the current balance of the team.

Liverpool have been without a number of key players at times this season due to injury.

Thiago picked up a knock in their opening Premier League match against Fulham, but has now returned.

Left-back Andy Robertson was unavailable last night after picking up a knee problem.

However, Ferdinand believes Liverpool need midfielder Jordan Henderson back quickly to help the balance of the team.

Jurgen Klopp has picked Harvey Elliott in Henderson’s place while he’s been injured.

While the youngster has put in some brilliant performances, he plays a very different role to Henderson.

Ferdinand believes Liverpool need Henderson back

Ferdinand said via BT Sport’s Twitter: “Jordan Henderson’s role in this team cannot be undervalued.

“There’s murmurings on social media, ‘Oh, he’s getting a bit old’.

“His role in this team is to protect that right-hand side, he marshalled that right-hand side.

“As soon as anybody vacated the right-back slot, he would shuffle over there and be that security.

“They’ve added another dimension with Harvey Elliott, and the way he interchanges and rotates with (Mohamed) Salah and with Trent (Alexander-Arnold).

“But they’ve lost that little bit of steeliness, that little bit of honest running and honest positional sense, to enable those guys to go forward.

“And I think that’s why we’re seeing more opportunities for opposing teams to exploit that area because there’s nobody sitting in there waiting.”

Henderson picked up a hamstring issue against Newcastle at the end of August and has missed three matches so far.

His injury was the final straw and forced Liverpool to dip into the transfer market on deadline day to sign Arthur Melo.

Klopp has previously described his captain as ‘brilliant’ and will be hoping to have him available again soon.

A report from The Athletic suggests he may be available for England in the upcoming international break.

Klopp might be hoping he misses out on this to give him more time to recover and be ready for Liverpool.

Given Alexander-Arnold’s recent defensive struggles, Ferdinand might be right that Liverpool need Henderson back to provide some important cover.