Darren Bent has claimed that Liverpool may ultimately need to make difficult sacrifices in their pursuit of a quadruple of trophies this season.
Jurgen Klopp’s side remain on course to potentially win four different competitions between now and the end of May, with many Reds fans still hoping to get their hands on Carabao Cup Final tickets for Sunday, but the catch-22 of that scenario is the fixture pile-up which awaits them when they’re already dealing with an injury-plagued squad.
Joel Matip and Diogo Jota have succumbed to long-term injuries, while it’s anyone’s guess as to when Thiago Alcantara or Stefan Bajcetic may feature again. That quartet are joined on the treatment table by Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez.
Speaking on the Kelly & Wrighty show (via premierleague.com), Bent warned: “Something might have to give for Liverpool, because they’re involved in absolutely everything. If the squad keeps getting decimated and the injuries [pile up], they’re not going to give up on the league of course.
“They’re already in one cup final. They’ve got the Europa League. Something will have to give in terms of the rotation of the squad and the players that he picks.”
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It was only a couple of years ago that Liverpool were last chasing down a quadruple, a pursuit which yielded two trophies and saw them go to the wire for the couple on which they missed out.
Klopp managed to keep his squad relatively fresh during that 2021/22 run-in, but he didn’t have to deal with the horrendously cruel injury list which is now plaguing the Reds, who’ll do remarkably well to get as close to the four-trophy haul this time around.
At least the Carabao Cup will be put to bed one way or another by Sunday night, leaving three competitions on which to focus thereafter. It’s possible but admittedly unlikely that, by the March international break in a month’s time, we only have the Premier League on our calendar from Easter onwards, which’d put a rather different complexion on the chase to the finish line.
Liverpool fans pride themselves on supporting a club who are no strangers to silverware, so they might be reluctant to pick and choose which trophies they want to see Virgil van Dijk holding aloft over the next three months.
However, as Bent has pointed out, the current rate of injuries is simply unsustainable, even with excellent youngsters like Jarell Quansah and Conor Bradley taking to the Reds’ first team much quicker than anyone could’ve anticipated.
Considering that we could still have 25 more matches to play this season if we get to the FA Cup and Europa League finals, it might be foolish to look too far ahead. Instead, breaking down the fixture list to smaller chunks may be in Klopp’s mind as he plots his forthcoming team selections.
For now, let’s see where the eight fixtures between the Luton game tonight and the March international break take us, before we go again after Easter for what might just be the home stretch towards a utopian send-off for the legendary German manager.
#Ep102 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️