However, in the past week or so, Jürgen Klopp has seen a string of short-term absentees tacked onto the bottom of that list. Curtis Jones has missed the last three matches with what’s been described as a ‘very low grade’ hamstring injury, while Ryan Gravenberch didn’t feature against either Toulouse or Brentford after feeling a ‘little niggle’ in his knee
As the team news emerged for Sunday’s game, Liverpool fans quickly noted that defenders Ibrahima Konaté and Joe Gomez were both missing from the squad altogether. Their recovery timelines are not yet known — Klopp said after the match ‘we will see how serious it is’ (via LFC) — but the French FA has already confirmed that Konaté has to withdraw from the squad for this month’s internationals. With as many as seven senior players absent, Klopp named one of the youngest benches he has for any Premier League fixture during his time at Liverpool. Luis Díaz was the oldest player at 26, with Caoimhín Kelleher (24) not too far behind but everybody else (Harvey Elliott, James McConnell, Jarell Quansah, Luke Chambers, Calum Scanlon, Ben Doak and Trey Nyoni) aged between 16 and 20. As per Opta’s Michael Reid, the average age of the nine players came in at just 20 years and 197 days.
Remarkably, Quansah was the third-most experienced outfielder in their number, even though he’d only made nine senior appearances for the club. Nyoni, Scanlon, Chambers and, before Sunday, McConnell had never even kicked a ball in the Premier League.
All of this means that the international break comes at a good time for Liverpool. Sometimes you might complain about a pause in the season halting a team’s momentum, and Klopp has made no secret of the fact that he “hates” international breaks in the past (via the Daily Mail) but the Reds can’t feel aggrieved on those grounds given that they’d drawn with Luton and lost to Toulouse in their two poorest performances all season before responding against Brentford.
Right now, there are three names that crop up on every injury list for Liverpool. Thiago is out until the New Year amid a protracted recovery from hip surgery, Stefan Bajčetić is being carefully managed after his own long-term absence, and Andy Robertson is around three weeks into a three-month lay-off following a procedure on a dislocated shoulder.
