Injury woes: Liverpool lose two stars in Luton game
Liverpool missed two more stars when they hosted Luton on Wednesday, adding to the list of unavailable players.
When Mohamed Salah scored for Liverpool against Brentford on Saturday, it was as if he had never been gone. Before halftime, the Egyptian replaced Diogo Jota. But he hadn’t played since sustaining a muscle ailment at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Even though Klopp undoubtedly hadn’t intended to utilize Salah so soon, he finally scored to put Liverpool up 3-0. This moment was crucial for the manager, who also dealt with injuries to Nunez and Curtis Jones during the encounter.
Even yet, news spread that Salah’s injury had returned. Salah has made matters worse with his injury and didn’t play in Wednesday’s match against Luton.
What did Klopp say about Salah and Nunez?
When speaking to the media before the match, Klopp had no choice but to address such accusations and put fans’ minds at ease about the possibility of another extended layoff. The Liverpool coach suggested that Salah could be rested to be fully prepared for Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Chelsea.
“It is day by day as well with Mo. It’s a similar area where he feels it (fatigue) a little bit. We have to see how it develops. It’s nothing crazy, but we have to see,” he said.
After going out at half-time against Brentford, fellow forward Darwin Nunez seems certain to miss the match against Luton as well. With Jones and Jota out of the picture, Klopp said he had no choice but to make that call.
“The problem at Brentford was that we had changed already twice and if we let him play a little bit longer and say ‘OK how does it feel now?’ That could have been it so we had to take the decision at half-time so we had another opportunity to change in the second half.
“He felt that in that game and there was nothing around. How we said we go day by day and we didn’t train on Tuesday. We will see.”
What did Klopp say about Liverpool injury woes?
With Dominik Szoboszlai also sidelined for Luton’s match, the Premier League leaders are without any offensive or midfield depth. In addition to Joel Matip and Stefan Bajcetic, who have been out for some time, Alexander-Arnold, Thiago Alcantara, Alisson, and Carlos Alberto are also out.
Klopp has said that Jota will be out for “months,” although the duration of his knee injury is likely to be less severe than that, and he may be able to return as early as the week ending April.
“Our injury situation is definitely not great. Alisson is a muscle injury, we don’t know exactly how long it takes. Trent and Dom are on the way back but not in training yet. With Diogo, it will obviously take months.
“It’s no excuse. There are 5,000 ways to play a football game and we have just to find one. Footballers nowadays can play different positions. A defender has to attack and an attacker has to defend. All our boys are good on the ball and have to be good off the ball. You become the best version of yourself and then who cares about the position.”
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