Danny Murphy: Henderson changed game when replacing Phillips in England win v Romania
Danny Murphy has insisted that Jordan Henderson changed the game for England when replacing Leeds United star Kalvin Phillips in the 1-0 win against Romania.
Gareth Southgate replaced the Yorkshire Pirlo for Henderson, who came on and actually missed a penalty in his biggest contribution at the Riverside.
The claim left Jim White bewildered, and questioning whether the Liverpool skipper actually did anything worthy of catching the eye.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Murphy couldn't have made his Liverpool and big-name bias any more clear as he went on a pointless rant.
"He changed the game in the second half," he said. "He looked sharp, fit, he looked positive, he played forward and was more productive than Phillips.
"He was braver on the ball."
Jim White responded to the claim, and he was clearly left bewildered and wondered if he was actually watching the same game.
"Was he that good?"
Embarrassing.
How Henderson changed the game when he came on is beyond us.
If anything, James Ward-Prowse was the one pulling the strings alongside Phillips, because that was his job, whereas the Leeds star was tasked with breaking up play, which he did perfectly.
Henderson just made himself look stupid when he pulled rank and stole the penalty of our main striker in Dominic Calvert-Lewin on the pitch at the time, the week before a major tournament.
We need our players to be full of confidence, especially those in the final third, so his embarrassing stunt to only smash it at the keeper was ludicrous.
Yet, here is Murphy claiming a player who hardly moved and hasn't played for months, completely transformed the game.
Of course, as an England fan, we would love Henderson to be ready to hand his experience to the likes of Phillips in the middle of the park, but there was nowhere a huge level between the two; that couldn't be further from the truth.
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