Mitigation : our injury list

[wiw]

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Bobby, Mane and Salah conversion rates this season are abysmal compared to last season. At one point we had over 100 chances created with a mere handful of goals. As bad as injuries and defence and midfield have been this season... if you have the ball... in front of goal... and can't put it in... that's down to the front three alone. Irrespective of the challenges across the rest of the team...

Quality of chances gone down maybe? Coupled with them being a bit ****e this season It's a perfect ****storm of everything I guess

[billd]

One thing which may be contributing is the move to the new training ground in Kirby. Footballers are generally superstitious and maybe some are missing Melwood. A similar thing happened when Spurs left White Hart Lane for Wembley, and then again later when they moved into their new ground

[billd]

One thing which may be contributing is the move to the new training ground in Kirby. Footballers are generally superstitious and maybe some are missing Melwood. A similar thing happened when Spurs left White Hart Lane for Wembley, and then again later when they moved into their new ground

[Mark79]

One thing which may be contributing is the move to the new training ground in Kirby. Footballers are generally superstitious and maybe some are missing Melwood. A similar thing happened when Spurs left White Hart Lane for Wembley, and then again later when they moved into their new ground

Not convinced by that at all. It’s training pitches and a canteen, how disruptive can it really be?

The injuries, the amount of crucial VAR/ref decisions going against us and the front 3’s chance conversion dropping through the floor are real issues and are a devastating combination.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Quality of chances gone down maybe? Coupled with them being a bit ****e this season It's a perfect ****storm of everything I guess

Salah's figures have improved quite a bit this season compared to last season, and his league goal tally is already better than all of last season so more as case that it is Mane and Firmino underperforming and Salah is overperforming.

[Exiled_red]

Will we actually see Ben Davies ever play for the first team?

If not why exactly was he bought? A youth team player can sit on the bench at best and never play instead

He has been injured but I suspect that he is battling with Phillips for a place in the side, I think the main reason he is here is that he is supposedly decent and was cheap (both in terms of transfer fee and wages). If Kabak, Fabinho and Phillips stay fit I think his minutes could be limited. Personally I would go with Kabak and Phillips as first choice CB pairing and Davies as 3rd choice with Fabinho back in midfield and I really hope that will happen but I fear Fab may still play CB for much of the remainder of the season

[Buzzo]

From the Athletic.

Liverpools injury crisis : 18 Centre back pairings and 155 games missed.

Never one to give up on his team, the Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson tried his best to carry on in the defeat to Everton at the weekend, but the injury to his groin proved too much.

Nathaniel Phillips, who had already started to ready himself when Henderson began grimacing a few minutes beforehand, came on to replace him. The Bolton-born defender’s partnership with Ozan Kabak became the 18th centre-back pairing Liverpool have used in all competitions this season, largely down to major injuries to Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip.

In stark contrast, Liverpool were crowned Premier League champions having used five centre-back pairings last season. Van Dijk featured in every minute of every game and was partnered with Gomez, Matip and Dejan Lovren intermittently. Fabinho made a rare and solo appearance at centre-half when he came on to replace Gomez in a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City following title celebrations days before.

This season, it has been chaos in central defence for Liverpool.

Rhys Williams, who would normally be playing for the under-23s, has already featured 12 times in all competitions alongside five different team-mates. The 19-year-old has acquired 330 minutes of Champions League football. Nobody would have expected Williams, having returned from a season-long loan spell with National League North side Kidderminster Harriers, to go on to make six appearances in Europe’s elite club competition.

Academy defender Billy Koumetio has also featured once when he came on in the Champions League against Midtjylland — to partner Williams.

Phillips is only 23 but is now one of the senior centre-halves. He has made seven appearances in the Premier League and had four different team-mates alongside him in those fixtures. The January arrival Kabak, 20, has played alongside Henderson twice and once with Phillips.

Another January signing, Ben Davies, is yet to feature, so expect that number of partnerships to rise to 19 and beyond soon. Fabinho, who has been absent in recent weeks through injury, is also yet to play alongside Kabak or Davies.



But it is not just Liverpool’s defence that has been hit hard by injuries. Eighteen different players have been sidelined this season and only four of them are recognised central defenders (Van Dijk, Gomez, Matip and Williams).

Those 18 players have missed a combined 155 Premier League games, far more absences than any of their rivals have had to contend with. Van Dijk has been out of action for the most matches, missing 20 since damaging his anterior cruciate ligament against Everton, and Gomez (18) and Matip (16) aren’t far behind.

Liverpool’s three signings from last summer have missed a combined 37 games. Diogo Jota breathed new life into Liverpool’s attack, particularly in the aftermath of Van Dijk and Gomez’s injuries, but the Portuguese forward has missed 12 games in total, the same as Thiago and one fewer than Kostas Tsimikas. In a boost to Jurgen Klopp, Jota returned to full training yesterday.

Luckily for Klopp, Tsimikas is understudy to the dependable Andy Robertson. In the 147 games Liverpool have played since August 2018, Robertson has completed more minutes on the pitch (11,378) than any other player. Mohamed Salah, who alongside Roberto Firmino has featured in the most games (135), has played the second-most number of minutes (11,227). He is followed by Sadio Mane who has made 129 appearances and played for 10,541 minutes.



Although Liverpool will want to play the maximum number of games every season to compete for silverware on all fronts, fans will also be aware it has been a non-stop ride in the past few seasons.

Rest and recuperation is key to this Liverpool team recharging their batteries after such a successful period under Klopp. But with last season running on into July, there was minimal time for any team to take a proper break. Nor was there time for teams to have a proper pre-season.

In recent summers, Liverpool have played at least seven games in pre-season, which has included a squad-bonding tour abroad. Before this season, they played only three friendlies. This contrasts with the eight they played before the 2017-18 season and the nine before the 2018-19 season. In the lead up to the title-winning season, they played seven.

Of course, this is not a situation unique to Liverpool. All the clubs had shortened breaks and pre-seasons, and plenty are feeling the effects of that in terms of injuries. Games are being crammed into a shorter space of time, giving players less time for recovery and training. It is taking its toll and Liverpool are just one of the teams that are suffering.

Nine of Liverpool’s first-team squad have missed 10 games or more, with 155 games missed through injuries in total, as mentioned previously. In comparison, Manchester City, who are on course to win the Premier League for a third time under Pep Guardiola, have had 14 players miss 93 games. Nathan Ake (16) and Sergio Aguero (15) are the only players to have missed more than 10 games.

Manchester United, who have mounted a title challenge this season, have had 11 players out of action. Their total combined games missed is 39, with no player yet to reach double figures for individual games missed. Leicester, nine points ahead of Liverpool in the table, have had the third-most injuries of the clubs in the top seven, with 15 first-team players having missed at least one game but their 96-game total is still some way off Liverpool’s 155.

Everton have had 20 players missing this season for 106 games, including long-term absentee Jean-Philippe Gbamin, who has missed 24 matches.



The number of players that Klopp has been forced to call upon will also be a concern for Liverpool supporters. On their way to the title last season, Klopp used 24 players. This season, with 10 games to play and January signing Davies yet to feature, he has already used 28, including under-23s such as Williams.

Data provided by Ben Dinnery of Premier Injuries shows that, since 2010, Manchester United are the only team to have won the league having used more players (29), while Manchester City are the team to have used the fewest players (21) on their way to title glory in 2018-19. That year, City fought off Liverpool for the title despite having had a first-team player miss 10 or more days on 35 separate occasions at the 24-game stage of the season.

The table below shows the number of separate 10-plus-day injuries that recent Premier League champions have had at that stage in the season (after 24 games) in the year they won the title and the year they defended it.



So, Liverpool’s total of 28 10-plus-day injuries last season is seven fewer than City in 2018-19, when Guardiola’s team’s strength in depth and quality of leadership helped them to win the title. Perhaps importantly, their central defence was not hugely affected, with Aymeric Laporte, John Stones and Vincent Kompany suffering injuries but still featuring in 35, 24 and 17 league games respectively.

Liverpool have had to chop and change all season at centre-back. The player to feature there most is Fabinho, a midfielder. And the knock-on from that has been felt in midfield. It has also meant that Klopp hasn’t been able to rotate players as much as he would like, because they are having to move to fill in different positions in the team, rather than having a rest.

In the past, Klopp has rotated his midfield a lot, resting players such as Henderson when necessary and helping to prevent burnout or injuries. That’s not been possible this season because of the injuries and hectic schedule.

Some have highlighted the intensity of Liverpool’s training as a problem and perhaps something that is contributing to their injury crisis. But this has never been a problem in the past and this season there have actually been fewer training sessions. With more games comes the need for recovery days in between, which naturally eats into time on the training ground.

One man who will be helping Liverpool to navigate through this tricky period is Andreas Schlumberger, who worked with Klopp at Borussia Dortmund. The specialist arrived from Schalke in December to take on a newly created role as head of recovery and performance. He will support the efforts of Andreas Kornmayer, the head of fitness and conditioning. Schlumberger’s focus is on-pitch recovery, where he will help players who have completed rehab build up their fitness before returning to full training. This is to prevent players from getting reinjured before they return to the squad.

Even though The Athletic understands Schlumberger’s appointment was not in direct response to the current situation, this does not mean the club won’t be searching for new ways to help stem their injury woes.

The focus for Liverpool will be on looking forwards and not back. After all, they still have a large number of Champions League-winning, Premier League-winning players on their books who are ready and available. It is up to them to step up and rectify the drop-off in form. Just as Schlumberger and Liverpool’s expert medical department will be working to repair the damage inflicted on players in recent months, the first team will have to do the same when it comes to results on the pitch.