9 great players who have been savaged by Thierry Henry: Yoro, Haaland, Mbappe…
Manchester United defender Leny Yoro was savaged by Thierry Henry, but he can take heart that the Arsenal legend has criticised some truly world-class players in his time as a pundit.
As one of the best footballers of his generation, Henry hasn’t been shy in highlighting when players have made mistakes or suggesting they’re not pulling their weight and contributing enough for their team.
Here are nine great players who have come under criticism by Henry.
Leny Yoro
Yoro might be only 19 years of age and a compatriot of Henry’s – but that didn’t save him from some savage analysis on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.
The defender was actually picked in Henry’s provisional Les Bleus squad for the Olympic Games last summer but ended up omitted from the final party due to Lille’s participation in the Champions League qualification rounds.
“Leny Yoro doesn’t go back to try and defend it,” Henry began, taking a closer look at Manchester United’s sorry performance in their 4-1 defeat to Newcastle on Sunday.
“They’re second in everything. The desire was on Newcastle’s side. They’re just not good enough.”
Yoro looked particularly at fault for Newcastle’s third goal, in which Harvey Barnes ran straight through the Red Devils backline while barely being challenged.
But it was the youngster’s reaction to conceding – looking at the linesman in the faint hope of an impossible offside – that really drew the Arsenal legend’s ire.
“That should never happen. I invite everyone to stay on Leny Yoro,” Henry continued.
“First and foremost he’s going to try and play offside and then great finish from Barnes. But please stay on Yoro and what he’s asking for. Pause. I don’t know why… I don’t know what he is looking at? Are you looking at the linesman, trying to see if he is going to bail you out, I don’t know?
“I don’t know if he thought there was an offside. We all know it’s a goal. What are you looking at? I actually don’t know. I’ve never seen that before.”
Played for laughs with his usual charisma, Henry pulled off an undeniably entertaining – if not somewhat harsh – piece of football broadcasting.
But something’s gone on in the aftermath, with both Sky Sports and Jamie Carragher deleting the clip from their socials.
Has Henry had a word after regretting singling out a young player? Who knows, but it’s certainly plausible.
David Raya & Gabriel Martinelli
Henry has enjoyed Arsenal’s ascent back to the top, but he’s not been afraid to criticise Mikel Arteta’s side if he feels it’s warranted.
Last season, he singled out Raya and Martinelli for their role in conceding in the Gunners’ 1-0 defeat away to Porto.
“You lose that ball, one minute to go, this is where away from home in Europe, you have to be a bit more clear on what you do,” he said on CBS Sports.
“That’s a cheap lost ball on the counter-attack.
“I am not a goalkeeper, but he is missing the one step to be able to control his feet. He jumped too early.
“We (Arsenal) were only good at set-pieces. It’s one thing to play West Ham, it’s one thing to play Burnley and then it’s one thing to play away in the Champions League.
“If you want to play in the Champions League, you have to create more chances.
“We didn’t create enough and, as it happened, those guys were better than us on the day. We still have a return leg, but I told you last week it was going to be difficult away at Porto, and it was!
“Look at this, it could have been a 3 v 2 (if Martinelli’s pass came off). You miss a pass, and the next thing you know you backpedal. If you backpedal against people that can curve, then you are in trouble. If it’s a better pass, then they are in trouble.”
Kylian Mbappe
From the way that Mbappe and Henry embraced ahead of Arsenal’s Champions League clash with Real Madrid, you could see that there’s mutual respect between the two World Cup winners.
Mbappe clearly isn’t too offended by Henry’s past comments, in which he’s questioned Mbappe’s off-the-ball work rate and advised him to take inspiration from Jude Bellingham.
“Bellingham is trying to do what his No.9, Mbappe, is supposed to do,” Henry said earlier this season, following Mbappe’s difficult start to life at the Bernabeu.
“I think the team is frustrated with him, which I can understand, it’s not easy. We have to give him time but at the same time he must learn to play as a 9, to have the desire and willingness to project himself.
“I know he’s not a number nine and that’s not what he likes to do, but do you think Bellingham likes to make these runs? Stretching the team? He does it because desire and will speak.”
And that wasn’t the first time that Henry criticised his anointed successor.
Erling Haaland
“I didn’t like it,” responded Henry when asked by Carragher whether the Manchester City shirked physical battles.
“It’s the same. I’m not small. But it’s not my thing. I wasn’t a Drogba, I wasn’t a Viduka or a Shearer. I don’t think he’s that type of guy who will go and play like that but you need the bare minimum, being able to control that ball.”
That ‘bare minimum’ jibe was after City were dumped out of the Champions League by Real Madrid last season, but he’s since pinpointed other parts of Haaland’s game that he’s not a fan of.
“I wouldn’t have been able to cope (with the lack of service); something would have happened,” he said, highlighting Haaland’s performance in Manchester City’s 5-1 defeat to Arsenal earlier this season.
The Norwegian striker scored in the defeat at the Emirates but otherwise produced an anonymous display, having been starved of the ball.
“I would have gone to get it, touch it back, do something,” Henry continued.
“It’s a skill, David Trezeguet had it that even though he didn’t touch the ball he could stay concentrated and put the ball in the net. But what can you do when your team can’t help you? Can you run into the channels? Can you be available?
“But you’re not moving so much when your team is on the ball or taking care of the ball. It’s not enough, but he will score when he plays like that, and he did.”
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Virgil Van Dijk
It’s not the most savage criticism in the world, but Henry claimed that Van Dijk was at fault for Lautaro Martinez’s match-winning goal in Inter’s 1-0 victory over Liverpool back in 2022.
He suggested the Dutch defender was too casual and passive in defending against the Argentinian forward.
“I think that Van Dijk does very little there, he should be tighter to Lautaro Martinez,” Henry said on CBS Sports.
“Sometimes, he takes that liberty to see what is going to happen.
“And this is what happens, if he got tighter, then the ball would never have past his leg.”
READ: Where are they now? The 3 defenders better than Van Dijk according to Richarlison in 2020
Ronaldinho & Samuel Eto’o
One from his playing days, Henry famously picked out two of Barcelona’s main superstars for criticism in the wake of Arsenal’s 2006 Champions League final defeat.
“All the time you talk about Ronaldinho and Eto’o and people like that,” an emotional Henry began in his post-match interview.
“Let’s talk about the proper people who make the difference, that was Henrik Larsson, who made two assists. I didn’t see Ronaldinho and I didn’t see Eto’o.”
“I would have liked to see a proper ref also,” Henry then added, offering a clue as to where his head was at the time.
You wonder if there were any awkward conversations when Henry signed for Barcelona the following summer and went on to share a dressing room with Ronaldinho and Eto’o.
He only spent a season with Ronaldinho, but you imagine it was all water under the bridge after he won the treble alongside Eto’o with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in 2008-09.
Micah Richards
Alright, ‘great’ might be stretching it – sorry, Micah – but we couldn’t resist including this clip.
The former Manchester City right-back got both barrels more from Carragher when they dug out a clip from the archives in CBS Sports’ characteristically boisterous Champions League coverage, but Henry couldn’t resist a dig at his fellow pundit.
“Micah, what are you doing!?” repeated Henry over footage of Richards trying to buy a penalty with an outrageous swan dive.
“Look at that – he landed on his lips!”
From one Micah to another.@carra23 has warned @micahhamilton07 not to follow in @micahrichards‘ footsteps. 😂 pic.twitter.com/AYryT8brca
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽ (@CBSSportsGolazo) December 13, 2023