Thierry Henry – A look at his underwhelming first year

By: Rob | April 22nd, 2008

Henry with Messi, but the latter has outshone the former While the world is momentarily distracted by Liverpool Vs Chelsea, most of us are more excited about the game tomorrow between Barcelona and Manchester United. I’ll do a full preview soon, But first I wanted to ponder upon Thierry Henry. Once percieved as the best striker in the world, now he gets constant critisism from the Spanish press (he was given a 4 out of 10 by one newspaper for his performance against Schalke, and another said there is “no way of getting him to play well”). What has happened to him?

When Henry was full of va-va-voom at Arsenal you weren’t really alowed to say anything bad about him. There were the whispers that he was a bit of a choker when it mattered, but his goal scoring record was supreme, and his intellegent play a joy to behold.

He was courted by the Catalan giants for a couple of years before Wenger finally relented to the tune of £16m. Henry said he wanted the chance to prove himself on the biggest stage. As Sam discussed earlier, The Nou Camp certainly is that.

35,000 people turned out to see Henry unvieled as the new Barca signing. Mouths watered at the idea of a frontline consisting of Eto’o, Ronaldinho, Leo Messi and Henry. They were most people (myself included)’s picks for the Champions League this season. Yet, Henry failed to show up in training yesterday with a virus and Catalonia gave an indifferent shrug. The general feeling is, that if he doesn’t play against Man United, he won’t be that missed.

This is partly because he has failed to endear himself to the Barca faithful. When Arsenal lost out to the Catalan club in the CL final a few years ago, Henry condemned the cheating tactics of his future employers. He pledged his future to Arsenal at that point, and somehwat hypocritically, took a dive after a challenge from future teammate Carlos Puyol at the World Cup.

After being asked why he hasn’t been able to reproduce his Arsenal form, Henry replied

“You can forget all about the Arsenal Henry. This is the Henry you will see from now on”

Not exactly what the fans want to hear. Another problem for Henry, has been that coach Frank Rijkaard has religiously stuck to the ‘Ajax’ formation (4-3-3, with wide attacking strikers) that Johan Cruyff (who has defended the striker) bought over to Barca when he was manager (in thier most sucsessful period). With Samuel Eto’o the only real choice for the middle striker, it forces Henry out wide – into what was Ronaldinho’s positon. (The latter has of course has an annus horriblis, and after a falling out with Rijkaard has long departed that berth).

Henry isn’t happy at being played out left – even though it was his original position at Juventus, and at Arsenal he was known for dropping wide and cutting inside.

“If I play on the left you will see the Henry that plays on the left”

To be fair to Henry, his scoring record – especially for a debut season – isn’t that bad. He has played in 40 matches thus far, and has netted 14 times. Ok, its far from outstanding, but considering he’s only settling in, and being forced wide, it could be worse. The trouble is, that he has netted one less that Leo Messi – who is in incredible form – and the Argentine winger has played 1,000 less minutes that the Frenchman.

Rijkaard response to Henry being ‘out of position’ has been succienct.

“he’s playing ok”

Deep stuff. Henry, who left his girlfriend (the girl from the Va-Va-Voom adverts) behind to be in Spain, has also complained about the fact that he misses his daughter. When a pressman asked what could be done to improve life in Barcelona, he replied simply “get my daughter here with me” the Catalan press has percieved this as constant moaning and he has been labeled “the man who is never happy”

Well, that might seem a little unfair on the fella. And he has won friends in the dressing room. He has picked up Spanish quickly, and his professionalism in the ongoing Ronaldinho-Eto’o civil war (”if i had been called Eto’odinho I would have won world footballer of the year” – Samuel Eto’o) which the tempremental African seems to have won, has won him the respect of his teammates. As has his tutorage of Barca’s new kid prodigy Bojan Krkic.

Bojan is the other reason why some Barca fans might have given up on Thierry. The youngster has broken into the side ahead of time, and while the world wonders what is going on in the Barca dressing room – the disruptive influence of Eto’o, the comings and goings of Ronaldinho, the supposed falling out between Deco and Rijkaard, Bojan seems to have just come in and done the buisness. He may well start in Henry’s place at Camp Nou tomorrow.

Bojan, who is only 17, has already netted a goal more than Henry this season, and looks like he might make it into the Spain squad for the European Championships in June. Henry rates him, and has set himself as the ‘father figure’ to the young prodigy.

The future, may still be bright for Henry. Rumours may circulate weekly that Henry is coming back to England, closer to his daughter, back to where he was a star. But with Ronaldinho almost certainly out the door, and with Samuel Eto’o again threatning to go the same way, Henry might be able to finally settle in Catalonia. Time will tell, if he’s just going to be percieved as a flop out there, or whether he actually will be one.