Liverpool’s injury crisis are going from bad to worse by each game as Jurgen Klopp has issued fresh updates on his players wo have been sidelined. As many as half-a-dozen Liverpool players have picked up knocks in the past couple of weeks as the Reds are trying to achieve some consistency with their results. Bottom placed Nottingham Forest dealt Liverpool a huge blow in the last game by handing them their third league defeat of the season, despite the Reds entering the fixture on the back of three straight wins in all competitions including one over Manchester City.
Klopp and co now shift their focus on the Champions League as they travel to the Netherlands to take on Dutch champions Ajax. Liverpool just need to avoid a defeat here which would seal their Round of 16 qualification. However, with a squad marred with injuries its difficult to rule out that the Reds would easily avoid a defeat. But there’s some solace as Jurgen Klopp ahead of the game has confirmed the return of some of his key players for the all important clash.
Jurgen Klopp laments over injury crisis haunting the Reds’ season
Ever since the start of the new season, Liverpool have sustained injuries in their squad from time to time. Almost all of their first-team players have suffered from various knocks at different timelines. Moreover, Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota became fresh victims of long-term injuries as the duo are ruled out for at least three months, forcing them to miss the World Cup with their respective countries as well. However, misery had piled upon the Reds even earlier after their summer recruit [on loan] Arthur Melo suffered a muscle injury in training and had ti undergo a surgery, meaning he too will miss the rest of the 2022.
Cub record signing Darwin Nunez, midfielders Thiago Alcantara and Naby Keita, center-back duo Joel Matip and Ibrahima Konate too were absent from Liverpool’s trip to Nottingham as Jurgen Klopp has provided updates over their availabilities. All of the aforementioned Reds have sustained recurring injuries and are struggling to attain full fitness. Klopp, in his pre-match presser before the Ajax game while updating on the injuries said:
“Thiago [Alcantara] is still out. [Ibrahima] Konate is here and ready to play minutes, I would say. [He] could play the first minutes but it wouldn’t make too much sense. Nothing new [on] Matip yet, no. Darwin [Nunez] is good. He trained. Normally yesterday and today. In this moment he is available. Thiago was not close. Is he a doubt for tomorrow? I hope not but who knows.
Ibou [Konate] is now ready to play. He trained first day properly yesterday. He was not long out, but he had a muscle thing – does it make sense to bring him in for 95 minutes? I’m not sure. Same with Naby [Keita], he needs to train, Oxlade [Chamberlain], needs to train. They’re both not in the Champions League squad anyway because everybody told me they would be out for longer, but now they are back – which is good.”
Klopp further rued about the constant injuries hampering his side’s form as they sit 8th in the league and there are early talks of Liverpool even missing out on a top-four finish. The German, on the injuries said:
“What you need when it’s really clicking is consistency in the line-up as well, and we can’t do that at the moment, not at all. It starts with injuries, then the problem is the players who have no injuries have to play too often, and the players who have injuries, when they come back, have to play too early very often.
“And then they come back and play and then they have another, not injury, but things, and then the medical department says they cannot play longer than 20 minutes, they shouldn’t do this, they shouldn’t do that, and these kind of things, and that’s how you go in a Premier League game, with a team with a knife between their teeth. So that’s tricky.”
Liverpool will need to tackle their injury woes if they are to bring a turnaround in their current form. However, with long-term injuries they might be forced to dive into the winter transfer market post the World Cup to bail themselves out of these crisis. But with doubts being raised on their ability to even achieve a top-four finish and fingers being pointed at Klopp, the German needs to work wonders with limited resources.