Blog: Stats show Jordan's growing up fast

Jordan Henderson is 23 today, but as he was under the required age when England began their quest to qualify for the European U21 Championships he was able to stick around to captain the team at the tournament in Israel.

Of course things didn't go to plan for Henderson, Jonjo Shelvey, Andre Wisdom, Jack Robinson and their teammates over there, but now that the tournament is over for England all four Reds will be looking to kick on in their young, developing careers.

Having said that, Henderson's career has already been more eventful than plenty of players who are a decade older than him or long since retired.

He's made 138 Premier League appearances, earned a transfer from his boyhood club to Liverpool, won the League Cup, captained his country's U21s during his 27 matches and made five senior international appearances - two of which came at a major tournament last summer.

They all add up to a pretty eventful few years for the north-easterner, but the Opta stats from last season show that it is the years ahead which offer the promise of so much more for both the player and his club.

Comparing Henderson's 2012-13 campaign to his first season a Liverpool a year previously makes for favourable reading for the Reds No. 14, as well as his club, his fans and his manager.

Although he played over 1,000 Premier League minutes less over the season than he did in 2011-12, Henderson still managed to more than double his goals output and quadruple his amount of assists in the most recent campaign, quite an impressive achievement whoever you are.

Again keeping in mind that he was played less as Brendan Rodgers sought to get to know his new team and the players within it, the fact that Henderson completed only two fewer key passes (ie passes which turned into assists or very nearly did so) is impressive too, whilst the midfielder also upped his rate of successful passes in the opposition half from 75 per cent to 79 per cent, a steady progression and one which shows his increasing importance in Rodgers' plans.

All of that is encouraging and goes to show that Henderson is progressing at a steady and promising rate, but one look at his seemingly never-ending work-rate during matches will tell you that he'll be the first to say that the hard work starts now.

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That U21 armband, the shirt and the spot in midfield will be passed on to a younger generation - with the fact that his Reds teammate Wisdom, who only turned 20 last month, was given the captaincy for England's last match at the tournament against hosts Israel looking particularly telling for his international future - and so the former Sunderland man moves on to a new phase in his career, and his life.

But with those stats and the series of impressive displays in the latter half of the campaign just passed showing that that phase is already well underway for Henderson, he'll return to the Reds for pre-season this summer knowing that another important season lies ahead for him and a team he is having an increasing effect on.

If he keeps up the rapid progression that we've seen from him over the last 12 months then it promises to be another campaign to remember. 

Is he getting older? No, just better.