It’s truthful to say that Liverpool’s luck with accidents has been atrocious during the last two seasons, and that could be a place to begin for Arne Slot in his first marketing campaign on the helm.
In his first interview as head coach of Liverpool, Slot stated: “I’ve all the boldness on this (constructing on final season) due to the gamers.
“That we are able to add a number of issues the place we hopefully can get a bit extra factors than 82, which is important with the likes of Arsenal and Metropolis, to finish up hopefully a bit larger than we did this season.”
One of many huge elements behind the Reds ending on 82 factors final season was the damage listing, which noticed too many gamers overplayed to compensate and thus run out of gasoline on the loss of life.
It was not a brand new phenomenon as it’s a battle Liverpool have confronted all too typically, leaving Slot with a key space for enchancment.
670 video games missed throughout 2 seasons!
To place the damage woes into perspective, Liverpool had 22 senior gamers miss a recreation attributable to damage in 2023/24, combining for a complete 362 video games missed.
Within the season earlier than that, 23 Reds had been sidelined with at the least one health difficulty – they as a bunch missed 308 video games.
It’s an absurd quantity, to say the least, and it’s not sustainable within the slightest.
Jurgen Klopp used 35 and 33 gamers respectively over the earlier two campaigns, which implies 62.8 p.c and a subsequent 69.9 p.c of the squad missed at the least one match attributable to damage.
If we need to have a look at the positives, it presents alternatives to younger gamers, and with out the disaster within the season simply gone we’d not have seen the likes of Jayden Danns, Lewis Koumas and James McConnell.
Conversely, it does little for consistency or a severe try at silverware.
Liverpool dropped off in 2023/24 to go away Man Metropolis and Arsenal to take the title to the ultimate day, and it’s no marvel as they each recorded solely 14 particular person participant accidents throughout the marketing campaign.
The discrepancy was telling and it should be a place to begin for Slot.
How can it change?
There are injury-prone gamers within the squad, however because the ethos beneath Klopp was ‘depth’ in coaching and matches, the medical division has at all times needed to be at an elite degree.
The latter level won’t change regardless of the upheaval of personnel within the wake of the German’s departure, however there is a chance now to tackle a unique strategy.
Ruben Peeters has been appointed as first-team lead bodily efficiency coach and might be key in overseeing damage prevention, and Slot will work carefully beside him.
Recognized to have a eager eye for element, Liverpool’s latest historical past with accidents won’t have gone unnoticed by the Dutchman.
As per the Mail, Peeters has labored with the boss beforehand on ‘microbiome manipulation’, which appears at how intestine well being can enhance sporting efficiency.
At Feyenoord, in addition they carefully monitored gamers’ sleeping patterns to optimise efficiency on matchday – routines that assisted with a low damage charge for the Dutch aspect.
Liverpool must see enhancements in relation to accidents in 2024/25, let’s hope Slot and his workforce can ship them.
