Henderson, who recently signed a contract extension at Anfield, is hotly tipped to be named as permanent captain by manager Brendan Rodgers following Gerrard's departure to the Los Angeles Galaxy and believes he has learned a lot from playing alongside the former England international for club and country.
"I've always wanted to take more responsibility, especially at the stage of my career I'm at," he told Goal. I feel I'm getting a bit older now, a bit more mature and of course I want to take more responsibility for the team but at the same time, I think it's up to all of us as a team to take more responsibility on the pitch and make sure we put in good performances. When I've been vice-captain I've just tried to do my best for the team as I always have and to learn as much as I can from Stevie, like I have from when I first came to the club. But we've got a lot of captains and a lot of leaders in the dressing room so I'm sure whoever he [Rodgers] picks, the lads will be right behind him. I've think I've learned a lot from Steven. I have from when I first came to the club, he's been a huge role model and leader to all of us. All of us have learned a lot from him; just being with him every day, training with him every day, you learn a lot from him."Henderson admits that Gerrard will be missed after bringing his 17-year playing career at Liverpool to an end, but backs himself to fill the gap left by a player he describes as a role model in the Liverpool engine room. The 25-year-old, who is battling it out with Thibaut Courtois, Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane to join Lionel Messi on the cover of FIFA 16, played 54 times for Liverpool last season and wore the captain's armband on 14 occasions.
"I think it'll be a big loss, not only as a player but as a person off the field," he added. "He's our leader so again he's going to be a huge loss but we need to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen as last season. We need to start well. We've got a good group of young players here who I feel have got a lot of potential and will do a lot of good things. So hopefully we have a good pre-season and start the season well."Following a shaky start to the 2014-15 campaign, which saw them eliminated from the Champions League at the group stage, Liverpool turned their season around, reaching the FA Cup and League Cup semi-finals and embarking on a three-month unbeaten run in the Premier League which put them back in top-four contention.
However, their season fizzled out after a costly defeat to Manchester United and ended with a cataclysmic 6-1 loss at Stoke City.
"All of us will be disappointed with the season," Henderson conceded. "Especially getting to two semi-finals and being close to qualifying for the Champions League. I think we can be disappointed that we haven't achieved the things we wanted to at the start of the season, but we need to make sure we learn from this season and improve all the time and next season we'll do better. At the start of the season we didn't start very well. The first few months sort of killed us, really, in terms of our flow and getting our momentum. Around the Christmas period and for a few months after that we hit a bit of form and we were unbeaten for a few months. Towards the end of the season I don't think we've been as good as we can be. It has been stop-start, so we have to make sure we improve on the things we have to improve on and also keep doing the things we've been doing well."Henderson acknowledged that Champions League qualification was on Liverpool's list of priorities for next term but also identified the need to win a trophy for the club's fans. We're good enough to be challenging in the Champions League but I think also winning a trophy will be one of our ambitions next season," he said. "I think we're good enough to go and win a trophy and and that's what the fans really deserve and this club deserves. I think we've got a great group of players with a lot of potential, young players who are hungry and want to improve and do better. I think we've got a great chance next season to show people how good we are as a team."
The former Sunderland man is also keen to end the debate in the Liverpool dressing room regarding the club's best FIFA player - by being voted to feature on the cover of this year's game alongside Barcelona star Messi.
''I'm a big FIFA fan so making it onto the cover would be surreal but an amazing achievement," he enthused. It would wind up Jose Enrique too which would be a nice bonus, all his claims of being great at FIFA won't matter if I'm on the cover!"- Goal.com
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