Liverpool were handed a welcome injury boost on Thursday as Diogo Jota, Virgil van Dijk, Roberto Firmino, and Arthur Melo were all pictured back in training.
While the Dutch defender and Brazilian forward seemingly only took part in the early part of the session, their presence still left Jurgen Klopp’s squad taking a big step forward to being able to boast a fully fit quota again with Luis Diaz and Ibrahima Konate now the only disclosed senior long-term absentees.
Admittedly it would be a surprise if Jota, Van Dijk, or Firmino were near the Reds’ starting XI for Monday’s Merseyside derby at home to Everton, with Klopp expected to manage their returns carefully. Yet all three are poised to play prominent roles in the final months of the season as Liverpool look to rescue their campaign.
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But it’s a different story for Arthur, who has still been limited to just 13 minutes of action for the Reds after undergoing thigh surgery back in October.
Signed on loan from Juventus on transfer deadline day back in August, the 26-year-old was brought in in response to Liverpool losing Jordan Henderson to a hamstring injury. At the time, Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita, Curtis Jones, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were also all sidelined, as the Reds were left staring at the possibility of a midfield injury crisis.
Yet the postponements of Liverpool’s home clash with Wolves and trip to Chelsea in September following the passing of Queen Elizabeth II meant such absences were hardly felt. The Reds would take to the field just three times in September as they went a month between Premier League fixtures, drawing 0-0 away at Everton at the start of the month before losing 4-1 away at Napoli and winning 2-1 at home to Ajax.
Thiago would return off the bench against the Serie A outfit, the same night Arthur made his solitary Liverpool appearance, while Henderson was fit for the Reds' Premier League return against Brighton on October 1. Meanwhile, that clash with the Seagulls would mark the Brazilian’s final matchday squad appearance before being struck down by a thigh injury.
Having worked so hard to regain match fitness behind the scenes, even featuring in a Papa John’s Trophy clash with Rochdale for Liverpool Under-21s having missed most of pre-season and not started for Juventus since early-April, such a setback was a cruel blow for the midfielder.
In his absence, the Reds’ midfield woes would continue in the face of a much-needed revamp. However, any hope of a fresh start at Anfield, having struggled both at Barcelona and in Turin, evaporated as Arthur’s hopes of the Reds’ activating the €37.5m buy option in his loan contract swiftly diminished.
While back in training, it remains to be seen what role the Brazilian will play for Liverpool before the end of the season. One of two players left out of the Reds’ Champions League squad for the second half of the campaign, despite his imminent return to training, it’s clear he’s way down the pecking order and not realistically seen as a solution to such struggles.
Without being eligible for European action, Arthur has a maximum of 18 matches to prove his worth at Anfield. In truth, such a total will be even lower with Klopp already confirming a return to training doesn’t equal the midfielder yet being ready to return for selection.
"He is pretty good," the German said of Arthur at the end of January. "He is running a lot. For him as well, two or three weeks maybe until he can join team training. But it looks good, for a while already. After a long injury he needs a proper build-up. He was not part of team training."
If Liverpool knock out Real Madrid in the Champions League round-of-16 to recover form on the continent, and progress through the tournament to the extent it becomes the Reds’ priority, he could perhaps be a useful rotational option to rest legs in the Premier League. Otherwise, he is very much on the outside looking in, having it all to prove.
In Arthur’s absence, all of Liverpool’s senior midfielders have returned to fitness while Stefan Bajcetic has also emerged as a legitimate first-team option. As a result, he is just one of 11 players competing for selection.
Klopp unleashed a new-look midfield in the aftermath of the Reds’ embarrassing 3-0 loss to Brighton last month, promoting the young Spaniard to starter status and selecting him alongside Keita and Thiago. Since then, Henderson, Jones, and Fabinho have been limited to 64, 43, and 28 minutes of substitute action respectively when coming on in midfield over the past four games.
Harvey Elliott and James Milner boast 245 minutes and 174 minutes each and have been handed starts, yet the majority of their action comes in the attack and defence respectively. Meanwhile, Oxlade-Chamberlain was limited to a five-minute cameo substitute appearance in the front three, while partly because of injury, Fabio Carvalho hasn’t even been turned to.
Having fallen to a heavy 3-0 loss away at Wolves last time out, Klopp is expected to make midfield changes against Everton with some of the aforementioned players in line for a reprieve. But with their action limited to such an extent in recent weeks, what chance does a returning Arthur even have of featuring?
The Brazilian is one of four midfielders not contracted to Liverpool next season, along with Keita, Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Milner. While Klopp has suggested he would like his vice-captain to stay put if possible, the other two look certain to depart on Bosman transfers with Arthur set to return to Juventus.
While the Reds need to find a balance between focusing on their would-be side for next season and their efforts to rescue their current campaign, if their Champions League qualification hopes continue to dwindle and their current European exploits are ended prematurely, it is easy just to look to the future.
Of course, it's plausible that Arthur could still impress in training and be a short-term answer to Liverpool’s midfield woes ahead of their planned revamp next summer. But the fact he was left out of Klopp’s Champions League squad would suggest the German and his coaching staff think otherwise.
In truth, the loan signing of Arthur looks the strangest of decisions looking back, taken in desperation amid injury setbacks and growing outside pressure for new arrivals as the Reds’ midfield overhaul remained on hold. Yet bringing in a player with a chequered injury past who had never played in the Premier League and struggled at both Barcelona and Juventus hardly had the makings of being an Anfield success story.
The Independent would even claim last month that there was ‘surprise in the wider game about the signing of Arthur Melo, since no one else was touching him’, and that ‘recruitment figures at other clubs said it raised questions about (sporting director Julian) Ward.’ While his initial arrival might have prompted surprise, and perhaps even brief relief in a panicking fanbase at first, since then his presence has only prompted raised eyebrows and puzzlement.
If Liverpool bosses have already decided not to activate his €37.5m, the evidence would suggest he can look forward to a bit-part role at best before the end of the season as he looks to add to his solitary 13-minute appearance. After all, with 10 other midfielders ahead of Arthur in the pecking order, it would be a surprise to see him selected ahead of any of his contracted team-mates.
In hindsight, his move to Anfield perhaps resembles the Reds’ loan signing of Steven Caulker back in January 2016. Signed from Queens Park Rangers as Liverpool’s defensive options dried up, he made four appearances but only one from the start with the other three totalling just four substitute minutes as an emergency striker.
His last appearance came when he started in the FA Cup fourth round against West Ham on January 30, while he would make just two further matchday squad appearances when left unused against Aston Villa and FC Augsburg on February 14 and February 18.
When Klopp signed Caulker on loan, the Reds had been left with veteran Kolo Toure as the only senior centre-back option available with Dejan Lovren, Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho all sidelined. Midfielder Lucas Leiva was being tasked with fulfilling an unfamiliar role as a short-term fix, while the lesser-spotted Tiago Ilori and unwanted left-back Jose Enrique had been the centre-back pairing days before Caulker’s arrival against Exeter City in the FA Cup.
But a few weeks later, Klopp was boasting a plethora of options and publicly suggested he had acted hastily in adding to his ranks.
“Now we have too many centre-halves,” the Reds boss conceded ahead of his side’s Europa League clash with Manchester United in March 2016. “The day before we put the squad list in we didn’t have any.
“Now we have too many and you think: ‘My God what have we done?’ That was the thing we had to do at that time. Now we have to get into the next round with the players we have available.”
Liverpool have avoided such a scenario this time courtesy of Arthur’s Champions League axing, and with the Brazilian not taking the place of any other player in the Reds’ Premier League squad. But while they were short on midfielders when the Juventus loanee signed, they have boasted a healthy number of options for the majority of his time at the club, with his return to training coming at a time when all their midfield options are fit. As was the case with Caulker, ‘now we have too many’.
As a result, it remains to be seen if Arthur will be able to add to his sole 13 minutes in a Liverpool shirt to date. Either way, with a midfield revamp still plotted for the summer, the Brazilian won’t be part of the Reds’ future regardless of how the rest of his Anfield career unfolds.
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