July 14, (THEWILL) – Liverpool’s defensive problems may be a thing of the past as the duo of Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez have improved in their return to active football in the pre-season training of the former English Premier League champions. But, with that return comes the issue of selection for club manager Jurgen Klopp.
The pair of players were sidelined by long-term injuries last season and cost the Anfield side a couple of games as Liverpool tried to rejig their backline with a heavy schedule of domestic and European football.
Dutchman van Dijk was ruled out for the season last October, suffering a terrible knee injury following a high tackle from Jordan Pickford in the Merseyside derby. He was soon joined by Gomez after the Englishman picked up his own injury and was ruled out of the entire season.
It was a debilitating blow to Liverpool’s campaign and their chances of defending their title whilst keeping up a European challenge dimmed with each game that followed. Klopp experimented by turning to the inexperienced pair of Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips while Jordan Henderson and Fabinho were forced to play out of position to handle the deficit.
The relief of the manager was substantial when he spoke to the club’s website from the Reds’ pre-season training camp in Austria, and gave a positive update on the recovery of his defenders: “Virg and Joe will not have double sessions now for the first few days with the team; they have a second session of the day but it’s with Andreas Schlumberger, with the rehab department, physiotherapy, these kinds of things.
“That’s for these two. [They] look really good. I don’t know exactly when we can make the next steps but it will happen in the next four weeks, for sure – we will get a big step forward.”
But, there was more positive news for Klopp to relish because two other defenders, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joel Matip, were also recovering from injuries, with the promise of a return to full training in time for the new season.
Klopp mentioned both in his comments: “Joel looks good, absolutely, he is the closest probably to normal training and then we will see when we get him started for playing.
“Trent was a serious enough injury but now not a major one, I would say. He is close but in the moment, probably the next five or six days he has a special programme: from time to time with the team, probably from time to time by himself. But then in five or six or seven days he should be in normal team training.”
However, that is going to be a selection nightmare for Klopp who goes from a desperate search for defenders to having Gomez, van Dijk and Matip all training for the first time following those long-term layoffs on the sidelines. It will be practically impossible to play them all and, at the very least, some will find themselves on the bench for long periods.
Liverpool made calculated reinforcements at the back during the transfer season while the injuries persisted and now Klopp finds himself with seven dedicated centre-back options to pick from to fill only two slots in the Liverpool backline as van Dijk, Gomez, Matip, new signing Ibrahima Konaté, Phillips, Williams and Ben Davies are all ready to play.
At Liverpool, in the mould of the tactical play that Klopp is known for, this is simply too many. And actually seeing them all train together in pre-season has driven home the point. There might be some loan moves or season-long benching if things stay the same but Klopp will know that he has a loaded stack should injuries attempt to derail their progress again.
But, the German tactician will worry about keeping all of them motivated, disciplined and raring to go when only two slots are available and consistency is the name of the game.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
