Liverpool have called upon the services of 33 different players this season. From such a total, if we include Stefan Bajcetic following his breakthrough campaign, 29 would be considered ‘senior’ players.
Jurgen Klopp’s squad has repeatedly been cursed by injury this term, with the season-ending stress adductor setback suffered by the young Spaniard only the latest example. While it isn’t the only reason behind the Reds’ failings, the impact of continued enforced absences can’t be ignored.
It’s been well-documented this season that Harvey Elliott is the only player who has been selected in all 40 of Liverpool’s matches to date. Yet, he was still a player who saw his previous campaign wrecked by injury. Meanwhile, Mohamed Salah, January signing Cody Gakpo, and third-choice goalkeeper Adrian are the only other players not to have missed any Reds games because of injury during the current campaign.
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At no point this season has Klopp had every player available for selection. Considering Liverpool were already without the services of Alisson, Caoimhin Kelleher, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Diogo Jota, Kostas Tsimikas, and Calvin Ramsay for their Community Shield win over Man City back in July, as well as losing Ibrahima Konate, Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita, and Curtis Jones come the final whistle of their Premier League opener away at Fulham the following week, they have been playing catch-up ever since.
The Times would report last weekend that Klopp’s squad has missed a combined total of 162 Premier League games through injury so far in this campaign alone - the most in the English top-flight by far.
Such a total is 38 games more than the second most-cursed side Chelsea, and a whopping 116 games more than the most injury-free side, Brighton & Hove Albion. Boasting an ageing squad stuck in transition, it has proven to be so much more difficult navigating these murky waters as a result, with Liverpool left facing an uphill battle just to finish in the top four.
Meanwhile, it is inevitably even worse when you look at all competitions, with the Reds’ total then rising to 250 games missed through injury (or illness) this season. The result of roughly 50 separate absences, for 25 senior players to miss so much football throughout the campaign because of these frequent injuries is quite frankly obscene.
Klopp would admit last month that Liverpool’s quadruple hunt last year followed by a mid-season World Cup this season has not aided his side’s efforts.
“For sure, some, the immediate impact from last season,” Klopp told reporters when assessing his side’s injury woes. “For example, when Diogo got injured during the international period. Came back, was back, then did it again.
“Other injuries were affected by long season, short break, and short pre-season. And some, Ibou and Virg, were after the World Cup. I don’t think last season was too influential for that but in general, the amount of games might have been influential.
“We had bad knee injuries with Luis, which was an impact. Ibou’s first injury was impact at the end of the pre-season. It all depends on each other.
“The most difficult thing is when you have too many injuries, the problem is the other players have to play too often. Then they get injured when the other players get back, but they need time to get back to their best. That’s the situation you are in.
“We didn’t have the full squad on the training pitch yet but last week, without Thiago and Lucho, there were 26 players out there on the pitch. Goalies not counted, so that makes it 28 when they aren’t injured.
“The squad is not too small, it’s not that we don’t have players. But we never had them together and most of the time we have six, seven, eight players out.
“Now we don’t have that amount, hopefully it stays like this and it would be massively helpful for this decisive period of the season.”
It would seem Klopp spoke too soon regarding further injuries following Bajcetic's setback. However, the German has seemingly already suggested the reason behind such a setback, with the strain placed on the teenager off the back of absences elsewhere arguably far too much.
Yet, as demonstrated by selecting 33 different players across the campaign, the Reds squad is not too small. The only issue Liverpool have with quantity is in terms of injuries suffered, not number of players. Beyond that, their problems stem from decreasing quality in their ageing squad.
Normally when a side suffers so many injuries, you put it down to bad luck. Yet this is not a new phenomenon at Anfield. Year after year, the same players are repeatedly struck down to leave the Reds short. While injuries are part of the game, all terrace goodwill at such an excuse for Liverpool’s failings has long since evaporated. To point to the continued absence of players has become tiresome, with supporters instead wondering who is to blame.
“You can criticise everything that right, but don't go for the wrong people, that makes no sense,” Klopp sharply declared last month as critics’ fingers were pointed at the club’s medical department. “I am responsible for all of this, if you want to criticise, criticise me. That is how it is, and I have no problem with that.”
It might be simplistic and ill-informed to purely blame the club’s medical staff for Liverpool’s recurring woes, but for some supporters the suspicion will remain that the same old setbacks suffered by the same players year after year can’t be written away as just bad luck or coincidence.
In the past Klopp has blamed the schedule elite players face. He is not wrong, the strains on the bodies of these athletes is too much. But that is just one of a number of contributing factors, with the club’s recruitment of ‘fragile’ players, the demands in training and on the pitch, and the club’s medical expertise are arguably all responsible too.
Beyond all that, you still need a bit of luck. When Liverpool got most of their squad fit during the second half of last season, they nearly won an unprecedented quadruple. It was only once injuries started to pile up in May, at the business end of the campaign, that their season ended in Premier League and Champions League disappointment.
The Reds have squeezed every last drop out of Klopp’s squad over the past six years, and have been rewarded with every major honour as a result. It's even more impressive when you consider the setbacks suffered along the way, triumphing despite injury-clipped wings. But now at the end of that cycle and in transition, they are needing to start over.
“I believe that the cycle of a successful team lasts maybe four years and then some change is needed,” Manchester United’s legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson claimed in a series of interviews with a Harvard Business School professor back in 2013.
In truth, the strains on Klopp’s Liverpool has been far too much and this season has ultimately proven to be one too many. Passing on the baton to the next generation in the summer, with at least a midfield revamp planned, it remains to be seen how far back they have to start from with their top four hopes currently in doubt.
There is a hope that new blood will be a breath of fresh air and enable the Reds to shed such woes, with a number of their worst sufferers set to move on. But if Liverpool can’t turn the corner and get on top of such issues once and for all, you fear that, regardless of personnel, their endless injury cycle will just continue.
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