THE club captain? Check. His deputy? Yes, him too. Liverpool’s best centre-back? On the list. Their premier forward? He tops the damn thing. Liverpool are at the summit of the “Why Us?” League with 10 injuries and the treatment room at Melwood has been more troubled than opposition goalkeepers.
The frequency of the setbacks are made more annoying by the significance of them; there is no doubt Jordan Henderson, Daniel Sturridge and Mamadou Sakho would be named in Jurgen Klopp’s strongest starting 11. The energy and intelligence the skipper supplies in midfield has been missed, along with his influence and leadership. Forget “D Studger D”, Sturridge’s moniker should simply be “The Difference”. No explanation needed, surely? We’ve been here before, many many times before. Sakho, meanwhile, could pass gas and make it great.
Yeah, thought they’d be no arguments to that.
Every highlight at Liverpool seems to be followed by an injury hinderance. The euphoria over Jürgen Klopp’s appointment quickly married the anxiety of losing both Danny Ings and Joe Gomez to ACL complaints in consecutive days. The striker’s frame is crammed full of fighting football, which would have been profitable on the pitch and earned him sizeable hugs from the manager post-match. “Young gem” Joe Gomez began his first season as a Premier League player glowingly, but will spend the rest of it gutted.
Liverpool navigated past that double blow before the buzz over the German’s first game in charge was barbered by Sturridge’s unavailability. Then, with three consecutive wins clocked up, Sakho’s knee clocked out in the defeat to Crystal Palace.
Every silver lining for Liverpool just gets splattered with shite medical jargon. Ligaments this and tendons that. The out-on-loan squad haven’t escaped this either: Mario Balotelli, Lazar Markovic, Tiago Illori, Luis Alberto… It’s hard to keep up with all the club’s players who are currently sat with their feet up.
And yet, remarkably, Klopp hasn’t used any of this as an excuse. Instead, the 48-year-old has been swatting away claims that he needs to spend silly in January, reinforcing his message to the squad that they’re all good enough for him.
The manager doesn’t want to play fantasy football, he wants to create the best possible reality. And so while supporters have been grimacing over expected repeats of Dejanism, the magnetic trainer is trying to dump the defender’s baggage and rebuild his conviction.
Klopp has also been assessing the club’s young talents, who are out on loan. Sheyi Ojo, Sergi Canos and Harry Wilson have been temporarily recalled during the international break so the Reds boss can meet and analyse them.
Ryan Kent was at Melwood on Friday and Saturday, before joining the England Under-20s on Sunday.
Brazilian starlet, Allan, who the manager has already spoken to regarding his successful stint in Finland, is also training with the first team. The two-time Bundesliga winner is known to shun spending in favour of solving from within. It would be no surprise to see him turning to the club’s potential rather than pushing heavily for pricey purchases.
While it’s no fun being top of the injury league, it would be even less enjoyable if the manager was sulking about it instead of actively seeking solutions. Klopp was brought in to school the players, but we can all get an education off him.
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As the season got underway, we seemed to have a ridiculous amount of players on the books who would be expecting first-team football. Within a few weeks of the season starting, the entire team picks itself, despite not playing well.
You could make a case for Bogdan, I guess, but who else?
Sometimes I think we would be better off having a first team squad made up out of about 35 good Championship level players (none especially skillful, but all having pace, the stamina to press for the majority of a match and genuine aggression), all on about 30k a week and bin-off all the big names to QPR.
Have a policy where no player plays more than one competitive game every 7 days. Have a standard bonus on offer for every game. 20k to every picked player for a draw and 80k for a win, in any competition.
I’ve no idea how it would work out, but if that kind of club showed up to play our lot at Anfield I would expect them to leave with the points.
Ha! I wondered where that was going!
I’m only half joking, although I don’t think they allow you a squad that big! Still, I guess you could offer the same performance deal to the youth players, if they were needed as back up.
Every former pro on the tv says that what really motivates players is money. When you remove the best 50 players in the Premier League, basically everyone’s crap and it’s just a matter of who is both fit and actually trying.
I’d go more along the lines of paying big for a world class keeper, defender, midfielder and striker, then pad the rest of the squad out with Kuyt-esq players. That is to say, those with great endurance, attitude and injury record, if not the greatest ability in the world. Same concept but make sure you have a truly world class spine. To be fair we’re already half way towards this with the likes of Lucas, Hendo, Clyne, possibly Milner etc… just need to add the magic dust. Oh, and a couple of grafters down the left.
I think Ings will be a Kuyt for us. Great attitude and work ethic. Possibly the biggest loss before Sakho last week.
I like it. A team full of piano carriers.
Or ten burly brickies’ labourers supporting Little Phil and his golden trowel.
I found the use of the semi colon in the second paragraph as unnecessary as your over use of dark eye shadow.
#lessismore
Melissa, I have only 2 pieces of advice for you.
Avoid MerseyRail, whenever cabs are available and don’t take any make-up tips from girls in Liverpool.
Always a joy to read, Melissa. Thank you.
Klopp is not the kind of manager to hire myriads of players, that would be an entirely new facet. He will focus on the development of the current squad and the young players. I think this approach is good for two reasons. It shows you trust your squad, and that always pays off (it already has). Second, LFC needs to build a stable first XI plus/minus 5-6 players, and you cannot do that if you have a constant personnel flow especially on key positions.
Maybe Klopp is going to ask for players in January in order to cover the injuries, but I don’t expect major changes prior to summer 2016.
I am also convinced that this peculiar loan system will die. Having so many players like Balotelli et al. for literally nothing would not happen in the Bundesliga. In fact, you would get sacked because you proved cluelessness. LFC will have the chance to mitigate the often bemoaned lack of financial power. Klopp and his team will make sure that it will be invested in quality, not in useless quantities.
The loan issue around someone like Balotelli exists for one reason only – the PL clubs pay too much money for players. They subsequently cannot offload them to anyone in Europe and recoup their money.
No-one in Europe would have considered paying 16m for Mario. Half that then maybe some might go for it. But a PL club comes in and can afford a 16m gamble, but they never seem to consider the outcome if the player doesnt work out.
Until the PL starts paying European value for players rather than PL value, then clubs will continue to get into this mess.
Agreed. We take a gamble and expect to recoup 2/3 of our money when it doesn’t work. If MB was only really worth 8 million, when we bought him, he’s now worth about 5 (if that) as his stock has fallen further still.
That doesn’t even take into account his wages. What club is going to pay him that much? Factor this in and it’s basically an absolute loss.
shite medical jargon is right.Everyone’s a Wiki trained orthopedic surgeon now ACL ? it used to be Smithy’s chips n peas have gone.
This is nothing new. Since late March, we’ve lost Sturridge, Sakho, Flanagan, Lucas, and Lallana to lengthy spells of unfitdom. No surprise that an 18 game run with two losses came crashing down upon our heads when half of our starting outfield players are crocked.
Klopp is upbeat now, but watch his jaw go all out of place when he watches Lovren doing step overs in the wrong half of the pitch (that Vine is up there with the Aspas corner in my masochism hall of fame).
As for the winter window, FSG haven’t used that window since Sturridge and Coutinho have arrived – one of the reasons Rodgers had extra funds in the summer (but still had to sell to buy, of course). We were begging – quite literally – for Salah or Konoplyanka, but FSG dragged out negotiations with no qualms about leaving the manager empty-handed.
I’m sure that was in Rodgers mind when they told him Balotelli, Eto’o, or nothing (I’m still fuming over the Reus joke that John Henry tweeted a few weeks later).
When will this nightmare of people referencing Aspas’ “corner” end?
Did the Firmino failed corner vs CPFC not convince you that stuff like that happens, that training ground corner kicks don’t always work, and that it is not the end of the world, or an indication of the corner-taker’s overall quality?