OLIVER HOLT: The anyone but Henderson brigade are like the idiots who bashed Wilkins and Hargreaves

You could also declare a bias right away. I have always admired Jordan Henderson as a player. I’ve always thought he’s underrated. Criminally underrated.

He’s a brilliant passer, someone who has the ability to pass the ball between the lines. He’s a tough runner, a tough tackler, a relentless opponent, a smart organizer, a good center. Some of the reasons why he has captained Liverpool in three Champions League finals.

Another statement of bias: I spent a bit of time with Henderson in the Algarve over the summer, helping him with his autobiography. He has a house there, but he wouldn’t say that he was on vacation. He had played a couple of rounds of golf with Adam Lallana the week before I arrived, but he also had a personal trainer there. I worked alone with him on a sports center court every day.

Jordan Henderson is a criminally underrated player despite criticism from England fans

His appearances against the USA and Wales were used as a stick to beat Gareth Southgate and there seems to be an ‘anyone but Henderson’ attitude amongst the fans.

One of the reasons I’m happy to declare the bias is that a lot of people share it. Even here in Doha, I’ve spoken to several former players, now leading pundits, who are effusive about Henderson’s qualities. They don’t question it. They look at the fact that he has won everything there is to win in the club game and shake their heads at some of the nonsense directed at him.

When he played the United States at Al Bayt Stadium nine days ago, he became the fourth player from England to appear in six consecutive major tournaments. The other three are Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Sol Campbell, so Henderson is in good company. He has also played in three World Cups now. Only 13 other England players have done so. He should do something right.

Henderson is also a decent man. He tries to do the right thing. He wants to help others. He is a team player. A true team player, not just someone who pays lip service to that idea while he pursues his own ends. Perhaps that is partly why he is at the World Cup with England: because he is what they call ‘a good tourist’. But it is not the main reason. The main reason is that he is a great footballer.

Henderson is seen by some as the man who stands in the way for the likes of Phil Foden (right)

Not that you knew it from the reaction to his coming on as a second-half substitute during England’s disappointing 0-0 draw with the USA. Nor from the reaction to his selection in the starting line-up for England’s third game, against Wales on Tuesday night, which England won 3-0, meaning they top the group.

Their appearances were greeted by many fans as a sign of the Apocalypse. More specifically, they were used as a stick with which to hit Gareth Southgate. Henderson, critics said, was a symbol of Southgate’s innate conservatism and caution. They clamored for Phil Foden and Jack Grealish and James Maddison. The attitude was pretty much ABH: Anybody but Henderson. He was pathetic.

It’s been like that with England before. The attitude toward Henderson fits in a different category than players scapegoating for a tournament exit, though we have a proud history of that as well. Peter Bonetti, Southgate, David Beckham, Phil Neville, Bukayo Saka, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho are just some of the players who have come under fire following their elimination from the tournament.

Henderson joined Steven Gerrard (right) as one of four players to appear in six consecutive international tournaments.

Henderson, 32, is different. He is part of a group of footballers under attack because he is perceived to be holding back other more creative, talented and exciting players by keeping them out of the team. Henderson has come to be seen by idiots as the man who blocks the way for Foden or Grealish and by extension hurts England’s hopes of winning this World Cup.

It is not a new phenomenon. far from there The first time I remember it happening was with Ray Wilkins. A theme arises here because he was also one of my favorite players. Wilkins was a sublime passer, the mastermind of all the teams he played for, a midfielder who was ahead of his time.

But he was ridiculed by the England public because his selection was thought to be blocking the way for Glenn Hoddle’s creative genius. Wilkins was derided as a “crab” because he was said to always move sideways.

AC Milan recognized his quality when they paid to take him away from Manchester United in 1984 but he was never properly appreciated in England.

More recently, Sven-Goran Eriksson was ridiculed for choosing Owen Hargreaves in the center of his midfield in the run-up to the 2006 World Cup. Hargreaves was booed before that tournament in a friendly against Hungary and then roundly booed by English fans when he was introduced as a substitute in England’s opening match against Paraguay. It was later at that World Cup that he produced one of England’s best individual performances of the last 20 years with a superhuman display in a losing quarter-final against Portugal.

Ray Wilkins was seen as someone who blocked the path of the creative genius Glenn Hoddle.

Now it is Henderson’s turn as the anointed. Or the anti-anointed. It is not in tune with the spirit of the times. The spirit of the times does not like modesty or the union of a team. The zeitgeist wants tricks and flashy celebrations and individualism and a social media presence and Henderson doesn’t do that. He goes on with it. He is single minded. He does not distract.

Many fans expressed their dismay when he was signed by Jude Bellingham against the USA. Bellingham had been brilliant against Iran in England’s opener. He is a fantastic player who could be the heart of this team for the next 10 years, but he was having a quiet game against the USA. England were struggling in midfield. Henderson stepped in and stopped the bleeding.

Much of the criticism of him is light. It is the opposite of received wisdom. He has received stupidity. It’s fashionable to hate Henderson, so people do it in droves, like sheep. Like they did with Wilkins. Like they did with Hargreaves. Some of them think that all England need is a team of 11 Phil Fodens to win the World Cup. They seem to have no concept of balance or consistency in picking a side.

The reality is that if England are to go deep in this tournament, they will need Jordan Henderson just as they needed him in 2018, when he played a pivotal role in getting them to the semi-finals.

Whichever role they ask of him, whether as a starter or a substitute, they will lean on him again and he will not disappoint them.

Owen Hargreaves was booed by England supporters in the build up to the 2006 World Cup

Head injury still elicits pathetic response

The reaction to the head injury suffered by full-back Neco Williams during Wales’ group game against England last week has shed a light on how much progress still needs to be made in attitudes towards concussion in sport.

After Williams was beaten blocking a ferocious shot from Marcus Rashford, Wales doctors treated him and judged him to have passed the sport’s concussion protocols and allowed him to continue playing. Dazed and seeing double, he lasted 12 more minutes before being substituted.

Reaction to Neco Williams’ head injury during Wales’ defeat to England shows much remains to be done in attitudes towards concussion in sport

The fact that he was allowed to continue playing seems absurd and infuriating given how much we know about the dangers of a concussion. The players are competitive and headstrong and the teams play a lot and too often health comes second.

Soccer is not helped by the macho culture that still permeates it. Former player and boxer Curtis Woodhouse said the decision to stop Williams’ game was pathetic. Williams texted him that since he could see 44 players on the field, he thought it was reasonable.

I would refer the ‘pathetic’ brigade to the death of former Chicago Bears safety Dave Duerson, who shot himself in the chest 11 years ago so his brain tissue could be examined for signs of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the brain disease degenerative disease related to depression and dementia in former players who had received repeated blows to the head.

The behavior of quite a few people after Williams’ injury could be described as ‘pathetic’. Williams was not one of them.

The fact that he was allowed to play 12 more minutes seems absurd given the dangers