Did injuries affect Liverpool FC’s chances of defending the Premier League title?
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The 2020-21 Premier League season witnessed some unpredictable performances as some lesser-known teams like West Ham United managed to finish the season on a high. Manchester City FC was by far the best team and it literally highlighted how Pep Guardiola organized his troops with his intelligent vision keeping in mind the opposition’s game plan. It won’t be a surprise if the Cityzens win the Champions League title keeping their current form in mind.
The Etihad outfit has dominated the Premier League winning the title 5 times in the last decade. On the other hand, questions are repeatedly being asked about the mediocre performance of Liverpool FC this season as compared to the last season when the Reds ran over every opponent. Football pundits and fans have opined their views stating that maybe the injuries to key players affected their form. Even Jurgen Klopp recently stated that due to injuries to key players the team couldn’t replicate last season’s performances and it’s a logical reason.
Liverpool have lacked consistency
Although the Anfield side played brilliant football in patches it lacked consistency against quality opponents and even struggled against some bottom-ranked sides when the team could have easily bundled them out. Yes, injuries definitely played their part as one of the best centre backs of Europe Virgil Van Dijk was out with an ACL injury from October and Joe Gomez too was out of action due to tendon injury. Even Joel Matip was out due to an ankle ligament injury which made the defensive set-up more vulnerable.
Liverpool FC had to bring new faces and had to change the positions of the players in the midfield as well as the defence. It also meant that Jurgen Klopp and the team management were not sure about the right combinations as they had to make last-minute alterations in their set-up in some games while playing against top-ranked sides and also while making substitutions midway in a particular game. This also affected the balance of the team formation and the players lost their tempo midway.
It generated more workload and pressure on fringe players who were either new and didn’t have the expertise to face quality opponents as they were relatively inexperienced or were new to face demanding situations. Creating a backup was also not possible midseason keeping the tight schedule and the team combinations in mind. There’s no doubt that injuries affected Liverpool’s chances of defending the title and Jurgen Klopp will hope for a quick recovery of the key players ahead of the next season.
Also Read: Manchester City wouldn’t have won the Premier League with Liverpool’s injuries”, claims Jurgen Klopp
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Devang Rajanikant Joshi
(143 Articles Published)