I wonder which of our first team players were better than Jordan Henderson at the same age? Charlie Adam was in his first year in the Rangers team. Jay Spearing hadn't started a game for Liverpool. Jamie Carragher was in his first year as a regular starter. Glen Johnson was a bench player at Chelsea. Agger just started his Liverpool career. Lucas was in his second year with Liverpool, getting booed by home fans. Enrique hadn't even played at Newcastle yet. Stewart Downing was still at Middlesborough.
Jordan Henderson is doing about as well as most of the starting eleven did at the same age, often better. As I hope all of you can see, players actually get better over time. He's enough of an athlete and with enough technical skills to be a starting midfielder at Liverpool for a long time. He's probably not there at this point, but then all of our experienced midfielders have been injured for substantial amounts of time.
As for mentality, here's Steven Gerrard in his first season - He made thirteen appearances in his debut season, filling in the midfield position for injured captain Jamie Redknapp[8] and playing on the right wing, but he scarcely contributed in the short on-pitch time he received, due to nervousness affecting his play.[11] Gerrard recalled in a November 2008 interview with The Guardian, "I was out of position and out of my depth." The Liverpool hierarchy nonetheless remained convinced that he would improve.[11] Gerrard saw himself as a defensive player primarily, looking to make key tackles rather than push the team forward.[10]
