"We will wait for him like a good wife when the husband is in jail." Jurgen Klopp has had to use such an analogy more than he would have liked during his seven-and-a-half years as Liverpool manager.
The Reds have regularly been cursed by injury under the German’s reign, with Virgil van Dijk’s ACL injury which kick-started a season-long centre-back crisis in 2020/21 perhaps the most obvious example, but this season it has stung that little bit more. The Times reported over the weekend that his 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 afflicted 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.
