Henderson

[1973_Blade]

It seems that this guy has more than a few people who are not convinced about his usefulness. There were a number of people around us on Sat who were calling him a donkey and others want to see Evans play alongside Sharp or Ward rather that Hendo.

As I see it he takes a lot of the flack away from his striking partner and does a lot of grafting. Boro fans were wishing they had a player of his type to 'rough up' our back two like Hendo did to Wheater and Huth. If he had been playing in the play off final then maybe Burnley's two centre backs may have had something else to think about.

One problem is that he seems to be targetted by refs for his past record - rightly or wrongly - but free kicks are given against him for incomprehensible reasons, just look at the free kick when he was pulled down at the Kop end on Sat.

At the moment I can see that Hendo and Evans will cause many more problems and make life much harder for defenders than any other combination we have at the club.

 

[Micalijo]

Couldn't agree more. Excellent target man, treated very harshly by referees - although we got away with an huge shove in build-up to second on Saturday.

Huge shame he wasn't fit at Wembley. Don't like talking about Wembley but a fit Ward alongside Daz would have lead to a different result in my opinion.

 

[Grecian2000]

"One problem is that he seems to be targetted by refs for his past record"

Don't think that is exactly the case.

He commits a hell of a lot of fouls when the ball is being played towards him. Once the ref has noticed this he is penalised virtually every time and mostly quite rightly.
If he battled for the ball fairly then he would probably get the rub of the green more often.

 

[oaklandrdblade]

Couldn't agree more. Excellent target man, treated very harshly by referees - although we got away with an huge shove in build-up to second on Saturday.

The way i saw that incident the number 24 shoved Hendo into DeMerit

 

[Shirty Blade]

I have mixed feelings about Henderson. He does a lot of hard graft and always gives his best. Last season I felt that he had poor service, there was a lack of pace, especially from the left wing and rarely did we streatch a defence. Moreover, he was often played as a lone striker. With more pace in the team, better service from the left and a strike partner he could be far more prolofic this season. I must admit though, I tend to prefer any striker to be a bit more mobile.

UTB

 

[jose_d_blade]

hes great on set pieces and i can see why blacwell likes him great for long ball ,,however i always think we dont play as well when he plays.
seems a much too easy option to hit the ball long, for him to back into a defender and give away a free kick.
hes great at holding up the ball wish the rest of the team would Vary there passes and get more out of him.

 

[Come from away]

He's a great target manand hard to knock off the ball, we just need to learn to play off him. Perhaps Evans can.

 

[bricktop]

I think he is a better player than people give him credit for. He is big, strong and awkward, and he is more skilful than people think, and i also reckon he is quite an easy player for his strike partner to strike up a partnership with.

In one of his early games with Jamie Ward last season, they looked like they had been playing together for years

 

[Revolution]

There are 2 problems with Hendo, as I see it. The first is already outlined in this thread - rightly or wrongly, he gets called for a lot of fouls, and as a result attacks are often broken up. On saturday he was treated harshly, but this isn't always the case. Both sendings off last season were entirely justified, for example.

The second problem is that he doesn't score goals very often. He hasn't scored in 10 matches and this is not the first drought of similar length. I know he's a good "target man" but if you're going to play him on his own up front, as Blackwell has done on numerous occasions, we aren't going to get many goals.

If we continue with Evans alongside him and Evans pans out it will be less of a problem but if not, 6 or 7 goals from Hendo in 3 quarters of a season isn't going to be good enough.

 

[SBSP]

I was never very impessed by our signing of him, and he hasn't done a great deal to change my mind since.

I agree that he is very good at holding up the ball, and if the rest of the team could learn to work off him he could be a bigger asset.

But, a striker that cost us £2m (cant remember exactly how much) should be scoring more than he does. He also sometimes seems more interested in having a battle with their centre half than actually winning the ball.

I could be wrong here but his goal / game record cant be that much better than Billy's (and for similar money) no-one seems to complain about him.

I would personally like to see Evans and Ward up front together, but that's just my opinion.

 

[SwissBlade]

1. Commits too many fouls/ gets sent off. Don't know whether he's victimised by refs but he's frustrating
2. The team play the hoof ball when he plays. Too easy to lump it rather than pick out a simple pass.
3. He doesn't score yet he's a striker (this is most peoples arguement against Billy)
4. He's very immobile and can't turn, Hulse could win the ball in the air, bring it down, lay it off and turn.
5. Injury prone, not exactly his fault but a fact of life, some players get lots of injuries others don't.

Other than that I love him!

 

[TonyAgana]

Did we play hoofball on Saturday, SB?

And as for comparing him with Billy, that's not really fair. Billy is supposed to be the foil - the scrap-feeder. He should get more goals than Hendo - like Webber / Kabba should have got more goals than Shipperley.

 

[Mousey]

I was never very impessed by our signing of him, and he hasn't done a great deal to change my mind since.

I agree that he is very good at holding up the ball, and if the rest of the team could learn to work off him he could be a bigger asset.

But, a striker that cost us £2m (cant remember exactly how much) should be scoring more than he does. He also sometimes seems more interested in having a battle with their centre half than actually winning the ball.

I could be wrong here but his goal / game record cant be that much better than Billy's (and for similar money) no-one seems to complain about him.

I would personally like to see Evans and Ward up front together, but that's just my opinion.

Probably because Henderson doesn't spend the whole ninety minutes staring at the oppositions defender's bums and thus being offside. And he doesn't just fall over when he gets nudged.

 

[jose_d_blade]

when they played togeter last billy looked twice the player actualy had three top draw shots getting on goal didnt see any thing from henderson at all bar backing in to players sooner play sharp than henderson always think theres more of a chance he'll have a shot.
plus less chance the ball will be in the air all night

 

[H. Metal Blade]

Smart post OP. I agree. I think he's great at the job he does, which is to get in the air and win balls and knock them down to the likes of Evans and Ward to score. Do i wish he's sink the open goals he sometimes floats? Sure, but then i wish we had Ronaldo on the wings.

Whilstever the likes of Squinny and Howard are on the books i think hendo is the least of our problems to bitch about!

 

[HoodedClaw]

I could be wrong here but his goal / game record cant be that much better than Billy's (and for similar money) no-one seems to complain about him.

Thats cos Billy cant hold it up, cant score and cant run, at least Hendo's reasonable at at least one of those.

 

[davidpinder]

It seems that this guy has more than a few people who are not convinced about his usefulness. There were a number of people around us on Sat who were calling him a donkey and others want to see Evans play alongside Sharp or Ward rather that Hendo.

As I see it he takes a lot of the flack away from his striking partner and does a lot of grafting. Boro fans were wishing they had a player of his type to 'rough up' our back two like Hendo did to Wheater and Huth. If he had been playing in the play off final then maybe Burnley's two centre backs may have had something else to think about.

One problem is that he seems to be targetted by refs for his past record - rightly or wrongly - but free kicks are given against him for incomprehensible reasons, just look at the free kick when he was pulled down at the Kop end on Sat.

At the moment I can see that Hendo and Evans will cause many more problems and make life much harder for defenders than any other combination we have at the club.

I agree i do like the front 3 though especially at home we need a really good home record this year and we've cracked it

 

[SwissBlade]

Did we play hoofball on Saturday, SB?

And as for comparing him with Billy, that's not really fair. Billy is supposed to be the foil - the scrap-feeder. He should get more goals than Hendo - like Webber / Kabba should have got more goals than Shipperley.

Sorry I didn't get to the match on Sat so I can't confirm myself, but the reports that I heard and listening to the comms then it sounded like it was well placed long balls instead of 'le hoof'

He's a striker, so its fair to compare him to Billy. He's paid to get goals. He/ they don't get goals

 

[keenzy]

Henderson is a bag of crap. Simple as. For the size he is, he goes down quicker than a hooker. He moans, the ball bounces off him 2 miles in the other direction, He encourages hoof ball, he dosen't score enough, and he's not worth 2 million.

Henderson really is shyte.

 

[yuley82]

doesn't score, gets knocked off the ball to easy for a big man and doesn't really win many headers when he does decide to jump, he's ok when the balls on his chest. I've never really been a fan of him. Also ward is wasted out wide but what do we know Mr Blackwell we've only grown up loving and watching football. One more thing people are gonna say hendo is a good target man, Brian Deane was a good target man he could hold up the ball head the ball bring people in to play AND SCORE goals!!!!

 

[Bladesman]

Henderson is a bag of crap. Simple as. For the size he is, he goes down quicker than a hooker. He moans, the ball bounces off him 2 miles in the other direction, He encourages hoof ball, he dosen't score enough, and he's not worth 2 million.
Henderson really is shyte.

I said that when we signed him.

His first touch is poor his second touch is even worse.

He misses clear chances like he did a number of times tonight.

His card is marked with every ref and no matter how much he gets fouled 9 times out of 10 the free kick goes the other way.

Waste of space and even last season Halford look more impressive playing in his place.

 

[Houso]

Big fan of Hendo but he didn't have a great game tonight. Still think he's got a lot to give us through the season though.

That said, he was the equal of Evans tonight.

 

[keenzy]

Big fan of Hendo but he didn't have a great game tonight. Still think he's got a lot to give us through the season though.

That said, he was the equal of Evans tonight.

Evans has played 2 games for us now? henderson has played how many, and i can't recall a good game from him? what has he to offer? lots of freekicks against us?

 

[Bladesman]

Evans didnt get into the game much tonight but when the ball is flying over your head there is only so much you can do. Also when the big useless lump your playing off isnt doing his job just makes your job harder.

 

[Foxy]

Evans didnt get into the game much tonight but when the ball is flying over your head there is only so much you can do. Also when the big useless lump your playing off isnt doing his job just makes your job harder.

Ah, okay then... so people lump the ball at Henderson and he's supposed to bring it down and score despite having a center half dragging him to the floor. But they do the same to Evans and he can't do much and besides it's Henderson's fault?

They both had the same service.

 

[keenzy]

Ah, okay then... so people lump the ball at Henderson and he's supposed to bring it down and score despite having a center half dragging him to the floor. But they do the same to Evans and he can't do much and besides it's Henderson's fault?

They both had the same service.

Henderson is played as the "battering ram" to win the ball and even in support with ward.
the £5million pair did bog all and the little whippet did more work than both of them. Well done wardy!

 

[Bladesman]

Henderson couldnt bring the ball down he was just giving away free kicks.

 

[Foxy]

Henderson couldnt bring the ball down he was just giving away free kicks.

He brought the ball down regularly. Half of the free kicks you can hardly blame him for as they were the other way as per usual.

He didn't have a good game, but he was no worse than Evans and he certainly did more than people give him credit for.

Brought the ball down very well for Quinny's volley. He hit the bar.

 

[lenners]

Big fan of Hendo but he didn't have a great game tonight. Still think he's got a lot to give us through the season though.

That said, he was the equal of Evans tonight.

Henderson's performance dwarfed that of Evans. Evans should be repaying his week's wages for that effort tonight. Absolutely shocking 90 minutes and a very worrying sign for a player that cost £3m.

 

[AlienWoodward]

Henderson's performance dwarfed that of Evans. Evans should be repaying his week's wages for that effort tonight. Absolutely shocking 90 minutes and a very worrying sign for a player that cost £3m.

Blackwell bottled taking Evans off tonight.
I'm no fan of Billy but he would have caused Leicester more problems had he replaced Evans
I read in an interview Evans saying it's great to train knowing you're almost certain to start the game on Saturday.I would have loved to see Mr Clough deal with him after that interview. No doubt he'd have been out walking Brian's dog three o'clock on saturday