In the midst of the international break, news was heard about Liverpool players who were injured and exposed to Covid-19 so that they had to miss defending the Reds in the continued competition of the English Premier League and Champions League.
Liverpool waded through the new season without doing much transfer market activity. Only three new players were bought, Diogo Jota, Thiago Alcantara and Kostas Tsimikas. The rest, some players came because the loan period had expired.
‘Never change the winning team’, it seems that the sentence is firmly held by Jurgen Klopp, who wants to shape Liverpool into a respected team.
Apart from the team cohesion factor, the lack of player purchases cannot be separated from the exposure to the Covid-19 pandemic which has also affected the finances of football clubs.
Financial problems were evident when Liverpool canceled buying Timo Werner from RB Leipzig. Before Timo Werner belonged to Chelsea, there were many calls that the German striker would be part of Liverpool. But Klopp said Werner’s transfer fee was too large.
A new season rolls around, new problems are inevitable. The squad that Klopp relies on is slowly having problems. Injuries brought down one by one to Red Merseyside player.
The Liverpool goal seemed to be gaping without the presence of Alisson Becker, who had a shoulder injury.
Not yet separated from Alisson’s absence, Virgil van Dijk and Thiago were also injured. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, and Andy Robertson entered the treatment room.
In addition to the players who often start, the residents of the bench who are used to being a part of the bench cannot be separated from the problems that are familiar to footballers. Joe Gomez, Joel Matip, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have also experienced serious assistance from the medical team this season.
In a pandemic era like now, Liverpool players have not been spared from the corona virus. Tsimikas, Thiago, and Sadio Mane were once absent due to exposure to the virus. Most recently, Mohamed Salah is certainly unable to play in the two closest Liverpool matches because he is known to be positive for Covid-19.
Some players have started to recover, from injuries and from Covid-19, but some will still be absent.
Without the best squad, Liverpool earlier this season remained at the top of the Premier League and topped the Champions League Group D standings. But top form can be difficult to achieve on a constant basis.
The defeat to Arsenal in the League Cup and a slumping trail at Villa Park is a sign Liverpool has a problem this season.
Meanwhile, not all of the victories achieved by Liverpool showed Mane and his friends deserved to win. There are times when Liverpool are helped by luck.
Seeing the competition that is still long and of course solid, because it plays in more than one event, it is only natural that Liverpool are worried about the completeness of the personnel.
While waiting for the players to recover almost nothing can be done except depending on the squad available.
Young players are one of the common ways that they tend to give up on patching the team. There are opportunities for young players to shine, but the process of perfecting young talent doesn’t take a moment.
At least there is an opportunity to bring in players in the mid-season transfer market. Although this again depends on the debit and credit cash flow of the club.
One thing that can be emphasized by Klopp may be about the discipline of players in the midst of a pandemic so as not to behave recklessly to the detriment of the team.
Meanwhile, Klopp and other Premier League managers have voiced a request for a change in regulations for the substitution of players from three players to five players, which do not seem to be realized in the near future or will not change forever.
If at this time the news about the completeness of the Liverpool squad still doesn’t sound loud, it is because the Reds are not yet about to compete. Faint news of the destruction of the club from the port city will probably be louder ahead of the weekend.
Or the news is just a figment because Liverpool can get up and rely on existing players, including young players, because several decades ago Manchester United, which was their rival club, broke the notion that ‘you won’t win anything with the kids’.
