Liverpool supporters have been concerned regarding how their team would fare during the Africa Cup of Nations since the beginning of the season.
Two of the regular front three, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, as well as midfielder Naby Keita are currently representing their national sides in Cameroon.
The Reds’ results have been okay in their absence, albeit the fixtures haven’t been the toughest.
All three have taken place at Anfield, with Shrewsbury Town and Brentford beaten while 10-men Arsenal hung on for a goalless draw.
READ MORE: Pep Lijnders hits out at Naby Keita absence and disputes Mohamed Salah claim
Things will get harder now though, with Liverpool having to make two trips to London in the space of four days.
They will hope to advance to the final of the Carabao Cup by beating Arsenal, then will aim to keep their slender Premier League title hopes alive with a victory at Crystal Palace.
Jurgen Klopp would love to have the absent trio available for these tricky matches, particularly the forwards.
Salah scored at the Emirates Stadium and twice at Selhurst Park last season, while Mane has remarkably found the net in his last nine appearances against Palace.
But speaking ahead of the cup clash with the Gunners, assistant manager Pep Lijnders pointed out that Liverpool have done well at times without their goal scoring heroes:
“We did it (won without Salah and Mane) before. We had one of the most memorable games we played I think was without a few of them. It’s not about that,” he said.
Lijnders was presumably referring to the 4-0 win over Barcelona in 2019, for which Keita, Salah and Roberto Firmino were unavailable.
He continued: “We needed to create goals from everywhere, last passes from everywhere, dribbles from everywhere, attacks from everywhere.
"What I like is that we don’t have one weapon. We have so many different ways to attack.”
Liverpool’s record without Mane and Salah, limited as it is, shows that they have done well without them in the Premier League this season.
In the 179 minutes that the Reds have played without their Senegalese striker on the field, they have scored eight goals without conceding any in return.
On top of the Brentford win, Mane was on the bench when Liverpool scored their five goals in the unforgettable victory over Manchester United.
As for Salah, he only missed approximately 16 minutes of the league season prior to teaming up with Egypt at AFCON.
He came off in stoppage time shortly after setting up Divock Origi for his late winner at Wolves and was taken off against Newcastle with 16 minutes remaining (with Trent Alexander-Arnold then scoring in that period).
The samples from 2021/22 are clearly too small to prove anything, but they show that Liverpool have done reasonably well without their numbers 10 and 11 so far this season.
And it’s interesting to see that this has been the case across the last four campaigns. In that time, Salah has missed the equivalent of just 12.9 league matches.
Liverpool’s goal difference without Salah works out at +2.16 per 90 minutes, comfortably above their +1.26 average when the former Roma man has featured.
It’s a similar story for Mane since the summer of 2018: a goal difference of +1.31 per 90 with, but +1.54 in the 20.1 matches-worth of time without him.
This is not for a moment to say that the Reds can dispense with their services without suffering, of course. In normal circumstances they can play with one of the pair if the other is absent.
As neither player misses too many games through injury, they have tended to be rested for easier fixtures, and as such it’s not surprising that Liverpool have been able to continue securing positive results.
But the figures also back up Lijnders’ assertion that Liverpool can continue to do well while they are away on international duty.
Whether they will be strong enough to defeat Arsenal and Crystal Palace remains to be seen though.
