Liverpool have a pivotal month of April coming up. With Adam Lallana set to be out for that month, and Jordan Henderson out for a few weeks, there’s going to have to be a shake-up in Liverpool’s midfield.
While Henderson has been injured, Lallana has been utilised in the more advanced role alongside Georginio Wijnaldum, with Emre Can starting deeper to fill the hole left by Henderson.
So with Can and Henderson unable to both play the deeper role, which one should be pushed up to accompany Wijnaldum?
The case for Can
The main reason to push up Can and leave Henderson deeper is that Henderson has played the deeper role all season and excelled in it. Henderson is the first-choice deep-lying midfielder which means that Can will be the one to be pushed up into the midfield.
Henderson is a much better passer than Can, and much better suited to controlling the game from deep. And in terms of the defensive side of the game, the only area where Can really excels over Henderson is in terms of winning aerial balls, and dropping deeper into an almost back-three, something Jürgen Klopp has tried to avoid.
Moreover, whilst Can has been excellent in the holding midfield role over the last few games, he has turned in some stellar performances in the more advanced role: against Watford, Bournemouth and Manchester United to name just a few.
So whilst Henderson should be in the defensive midfield role on merit, Can should nevertheless be considered for the advanced role on merit too.
The case for Henderson
The case for Henderson is, much like the case for Can, two-fold. Whilst Can has excelled in the forward role, there is no denying that his best position is deeper, as Can is primarily a defensive midfielder.
His passing isn’t necessarily incisive or consistent enough for him to play further forwards, whereas Henderson’s is. Can’s biggest strengths are the more defensive sides to the game and given time to flourish there, Liverpool will probably see a better defensive output as a result.
And likewise, there’s a case to be made that Henderson’s best position is further forward. Playing in a more advanced midfield position has often worked for Henderson, and some of his best performances came in the 2013-14 season when he was playing on the right of an attacking midfield three, so it would be exciting to see Henderson’s passing range fully utilised further up the pitch.
The case for neither
Whilst the argument to shift from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3 has been done to death, it would be remiss not to at least consider it, given that Henderson and Can are the perfect combination for a double pivot.
Both have attributes that mean that they can play both as defensive midfielders and as deep-lying playmakers, making energetic runs through the midfield. In short, they complement each other well, and forcing one to consistently play deeper than the other upsets the balance of their harmonisation.
Moreover, Lallana has been the main problem with switching to a 4-2-3-1 but with him out of the picture, there’s much less stopping Liverpool from making the shift, either by playing Wijnaldum further forwards or dropping Roberto Firmino deeper.
There are certainly cases to be made on both sides. Both Henderson and Can are well suited to both roles. However, this season, Henderson has excelled in the deep-lying role and Can playing ahead of him has worked well for large periods of the season, and that will surely be the solution that Klopp will continue to utilise once Henderson is back fit.