Jurgen Klopp was reluctant to make the point. But facts, as former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez may very well say, are facts.
"We have a lot of players unavailable at the moment, and you can see that," said the current Reds manager in the aftermath of the dire defeat at Brentford on Monday evening.
“We cannot just throw in offensive players to give people a rest, they pretty much all have to fight through.”
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Liverpool are certainly suffering an availability crisis in attack at present. Luis Diaz and Diogo Jota are long-term absentees, while new signing Cody Gakpo - whose transfer was accelerated by the injuries to the duo - wasn't registered in time to play at the Gtech Community Stadium.
But also not there was Roberto Firmino. And his experience has certainly been missed during the festive period having suffered a calf problem shortly after returning from the warm weather training camp in Dubai a fortnight ago.
One beneficiary of Firmino's absence has been Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has quietly impressed as a makeshift left winger - where Darwin Nunez would surely have been otherwise employed - and merited his goal at Brentford.
Otherwise, though, the onus has been on Nunez and Mohamed Salah to provide in four games in a short space of time. Gakpo's availability for the FA Cup third round tie at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday evening will help, but the 23-year-old only began training with his new team-mates on Wednesday. It will take time to settle.
Firmino was again missing from training on Thursday, indicating he may well remain sidelined for the weekend. And his availability surely cannot come quick enough for the January signing.
"When I played at the World Cup, I played more in the centre," said Gakpo on his unveiling last week of his time with the Netherlands in Qatar. "So I played like a 'false nine', something like this – try to find my spaces to get the ball and to dribble or to move the ball forward."
Nobody has embraced the 'false nine' role quite like Firmino, almost redefining the position. Gakpo, then, is surely at the right place to learn the intricacies of the position on a regular basis.
The injury is particularly frustrating for Firmino as he strives to prove the folly of him being omitted from Brazil's World Cup squad. He signed off ahead of the break for the tournament with a goal against Southampton, taking him on to nine for the season with four assists - an output bettered only by Salah for Liverpool this season.
With Firmino now free to talk to interested parties from overseas having yet to agree a new contract to replace the one that expires at the end of the season, he is already being linked with a number of clubs, most recently Bayern Munich.
While Klopp wants the Brazilian to stay, ultimately it will be down to the player himself. But until Firmino walks out the Anfield exit, he will be a key player for Liverpool - and could help unlock more of Gakpo's undoubted potential.
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