Coping with injuries is an almost constant problem in football and Liverpool have had to deal with the issue to extreme lengths in recent times.
Tracking injuries accurately is not an easy task. A player might have recovered from their fitness issue but not be in suitable condition to take part in a match.
However, it appears that Jurgen Klopp has a full squad at his disposal for the first time in two years.
As his players have collectively missed almost 200 games between them this season, this should present the Reds with a significant advantage as they enter the knock out phase of the Champions League.
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Klopp said as much when speaking to the press ahead of Liverpool’s first leg match with Inter Milan.
“It's a good situation to have,” he said. “We need fresh legs for this game but much more important is we can change five times in the game which is a real boost for football in general at a tough time of the year.”
Liverpool’s forthcoming opponents Inter are not in such a strong position. Their manager Simone Inzaghi looks set to be without Alessandro Bastoni, Joaquin Correa and Robin Gosens thanks to injuries.
Inzaghi will be missing arguably his most important player thanks to a moment of madness though.
Inter lost their final match of the group stage 2-0 away to Real Madrid. Had they won they would have topped Group D and avoided the likes of Liverpool but it was not to be.
What could prove to be the more costly result of the match in Madrid was the red card shown to midfielder Nicolo Barella.
He was dismissed for punching Eder Militao on the leg, after the two players had tangled while challenging for a ball which went out of play for a throw.
The 25-year-old, who won the European Championship with Italy last summer, has been linked with a move to Anfield many times in the past.
However, when such stories circulated ahead of the 2021/22 season, they were dismissed as the work of the player’s agent on an Italian football special on the Blood Red channel.
Even if those rumours were entirely fictional, Klopp revealed himself to be a fan of the player in his latest press conference.
He said: “That Barella is not able to play is not bad for us!
“He is a really good player, a really good player. I like him a lot. He has all the things you want from a midfield player. He’s aggressive, he’s technically [good], he can run for ages and all these kinds of things."
The Liverpool manager suggested Arturo Vidal may take Barella’s spot, and that was how Inter lined up for their 1-0 win over Torino in December when the latter was suspended after accumulating five yellow cards.
Klopp questioned if this situation would present his side with an advantage thanks to Vidal’s experience and motivation, but the Chilean will have his work cut out if he is to replicate what Barella has offered Inter this season.
While they play different positions, in many ways it is akin to Liverpool being without Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Barella has completed 47 open play passes into opposition penalty boxes this season, the second most in Serie A and joint-tenth most across Europe’s big five leagues.
With 65, Alexander-Arnold is the top player in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain for this metric, and he has completed 16 crosses into the box in open play too. Barella has 14 of those to his name.
Both players were also among Europe’s top 15 for completing progressive passes (those which significantly advance the ball in the front two thirds of the pitch) last season, albeit Barella has seen his form dip a little on this front in 2021/22.
And they each feature highly in their league’s charts of shot creating actions and expected assists too.
The thought of Liverpool approaching a massive match without Alexander-Arnold doesn’t bear thinking about yet that is effectively the position in which Inter Milan find themselves.
Klopp doesn’t get much wrong but when he suggested Barella’s absence may not be advantageous to Liverpool, he may have been wide of the mark for once.
