It’s honest to say that Liverpool’s luck with accidents has been atrocious over the past two seasons, and that may be a start line for Arne Slot in his first marketing campaign on the helm.
In his first interview as head coach of Liverpool, Slot mentioned: “I’ve all the boldness on this (constructing on final season) due to the gamers.
“That we will add just a few 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 massive 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 dying.
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 sport on account of damage in 2023/24, combining for a complete 362 video games missed.
Within the season earlier than that, 23 Reds have been sidelined with at the least one health subject – they as a gaggle 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 on account of damage.
If we wish to have a look at the positives, it presents alternatives to younger gamers, and with out the disaster within the season simply gone we might 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 depart 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 have to 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 all the time needed to be at an elite stage.
The latter level is not going to 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.
Identified to have a eager eye for element, Liverpool’s latest historical past with accidents is not going to 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 fee for the Dutch aspect.
Liverpool must see enhancements in terms of accidents in 2024/25, let’s hope Slot and his staff can ship them.
