I waited until the last game of the season to post this summary, to have a full picture. If you don't want a big read, the short answer is that statistically, its a stitch up and they should hang their heads in shame at their hipocracy and bias. It only damages our game and reputation and devalues the league.
I don't think that there is one valid reason why Henderson should have won it, and the figures back it up with gusto. He's not as exciting as KDB, not as inuflential on a game, nor, as the stats below show, is he just a 'different kind of player' who helps his team in a different way. He's a middling midfielder who doesn;t score, create or even break up play better than his peers from mid-table teams. But, importantly, he IS the captian of Liverpool FC. It's not what you do, evidently.
I appreciate this award is a complete farce and we have been ignored repeatedly for individual awards over the years, However, the season figures to date show just how ridiculous it has become. Yes, there is (or should be) something to be said for captaining a title-winning team, but failure to recognsie City players for that despite winning 4 of the last 9 Premier Leagues kind of throws that argument out of the window. In fact we have only one winner (Sterling) since Tony Book shared the award in the 68-69 season. Liverpool on the other hadn now have four since 2008, despite it only being a couple of seasons or so since 2008 when they've actually been a challenging team. Again, I could get this IF it was Liverpool who'd been the ones with 4 Premier League trophies in the past decade.
From the stats I could find, in all comps Kev has 11 more Man on the Match awards than Henderson, including a MotM in the Community Shield game wehere these two teams and players faced off directly, with Kevin and City emerging victorius. Ok, MotM is subjective and reliant on who was giving the award, I get that, but its a genera indication that on a match by match basis he played better, or at least made telling contributions more often that Henderson.
So lets go for cold hard stats. Kev has 10 more goals that Henderson, including one in the Champsion League. He has 15 more assists than him, including levelling Theirry Henry's assist record (and we all can appreciate hat a player Henry was). One of those was voted official PL goal of the month (vs Newcastle). He's clearly a more exciting player to watch, the stats would suggest.
Passing stats are about the same at first glance - Henderson completing 84% of his passes and De Bruyne 81%, but given the assists stats above it is noteworthy that KDB tried more ambitious passes. He ain't no crab. Looking at the PL official stats only, so league games only, Kev has attempted 1907 passes in 38 games ansd created 33 chances, tried 304 crosses with an accuracy of 25%, 32 through balls and 121 accurate long balls. Jordan tried less passes, just, at 1856, but the other stats suggest that maybe he is playing safer passes - he created just 9 chances, tried 58 crosses at just 17% accuracy, made 7 through balls and 125 accurate long balls.
Defensively, then, maybe that's where Sir Jordo of Henderson excels? Kev has tried 208 tackles with a win ratio of 68%, comitting 26 fouls. He has blocked 29 shots, made 18 interceptions and cleared 23 times. After losing the ball he gained it back 136 times. He has won 138 duels and lost 153 on the gournd, won 17 and lost 17 in the air, won 48 50/50 challenges and made zero mistakes that lead to an opponent scoring despite, from what we have seen, trying more ambitous or risky passes. Henderson commited more fouls, 31, and made 68 tackles, les than one third that of KDB, with a win ratio of also 68%. So he isn't breaking up the play any more than Kevin. He blocked 8 shots, made 30 interceptions and cleared 18 times. All together he got rid of the ball 56 times compared to Kevin's 70. Duels won and lost is where Henderson edges it, winning on the ground 116 and losing 90, and in the air winning 26 and losing 17. But he only won 17 50/50 challlenges so he doen't get stuck in either. One big area Henderson does seem to do well at is getting the ball back after giving it away - 183 times. But remember to get that that he has to give the ball away more in the first place.
Given that Kevin is creating more chances it's remarkable that he's also doing more defensively, but the stats don't lie. On top of that, even the Liverpool fans I know are saying he hasn;t been their best player this season and they need to improve in midfield - he is not seen as a key player, from what I can tell, despite apparently having such a great season according to these writers.
For the simple last test we could, based on this season alone, ask every premier league fan, chairman and manager who they'd rather have in their team. Kevin De Bruyne or Jordan Henderson? What if UEFA enforced LIverpool to swap De Bruyne for Henderson, would they complain, or would they have yet another covid-19 incubating party to celebrate? Thought so.
I don't expect a single thing to change, but pointing out how irrelevant this award, and the writers who choose the winner, actually are in the bigger picture, feels somewhat theraputic. What's the point in wanting to win an award when its basically often just a popularity contest over talent.
