Lots of Liverpool fans have been criticising Jordan Henderson and James Milner’s performances against Napoli, after a stat revealed just how ineffective the English duo are in big games.
Perhaps Liverpool fans’ biggest gripe with Jurgen Klopp is his insistence on playing workhorse midfielders rather than creative players in the biggest fixtures.
Against Manchester United at Old Trafford earlier this season, the introductions of Adam Lallana, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita injected life into an otherwise abject performance, and Wednesday’s clash against Napoli followed the same script.
Only after Oxlade-Chamberlain was introduced did the Reds start to look incisive and dangerous going forward, and a tweet from Premier League Panel has displayed a worrying trend regarding Henderson and Milner.
LFC record vs top 6 & in the UCL, with Henderson & Milner playing 45 mins+ together in midfield,since the start of 2018/19
PSG: 3-2 W
Napoli: 1-0 L
Chelsea: 1-1 D
PSG: 2-1 L
Napoli: 1-0 W
Man City: 2-1 L
Spurs: 2-1 W
Chelsea: 2-2 D
Napoli: 2-0 L
Napoli: 1-1 D10 games- 3W,3D,4L pic.twitter.com/fDZIOiH6dp
— Premier League Panel (@PremLeaguePanel) November 27, 2019
That’s seven out of ten matches against the ‘big six’ and in the Champions League that Klopp’s side have dropped points with his workhorse duo playing the majority of the match, and fans are understandably frustrated.
Have a look at some of the best Twitter reactions down below…
I’ve been saying this for 2 years, whenever we start both Millie and Hendo in midfield best case is usually a draw. This tweet bears that out, 7 out of 10 time we dropped points.
Love them both, but enough is enough. Klopp needs to stop doing this.
— Chadwyck Peters 🇯🇲 (@Chaddymus_Prime) November 28, 2019
It’s clear to me that Henderson and milner in midfield is too defensive and not creative enough. It needs to be keita and anyone else except for wijnaldum
— Shady.K (@shadykadry_lol) November 28, 2019
One of them at the time gives the team stability, both of them at the same time gives the team sterility.
— Hrvoslav Kristić (@HrvoslavYNWA) November 28, 2019
That’s because they’re championship level players
— theba301 (@theba301) November 28, 2019
So we definitely need to change that then
— HamÉz A.C (@ArgentinJames) November 28, 2019
Yep every single game is a struggle
— Craig Fisher (@1CraigFisher) November 28, 2019
