On Wednesday night, Liverpool overcame Luton 4-1 to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table. Not a hugely surprising turn of events there – except, the Reds achieved that without ten players who were out injured, at least seven of whom are usually starters.
Plenty of clubs have to deal with injury absences, but Jürgen Klopp is certainly dealing with an unusually high tally right now – especially given Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah would be seen as the best players in each line of the team by many. And, of course, the fact they have a cup final to contend with on Sunday.
The Reds will hope to have a couple of faces back by the time they face Chelsea at Wembley, Salah and Darwin Núñez being the most likely ones, but they will still have midfield issues to deal with in particular.
Which brings us to perhaps their biggest miss of all and maybe an unexpected name on the outside: Curtis Jones.
The Scouser has a number of times forced his way into the lineup over the past few seasons, but a series of ridiculous injuries and improbable absences soon saw him squeezed out again. This time around has been different for Jones, making the most of Thiago’s absence and summer sales to become a guaranteed starter on the left of Liverpool’s midfield three.
Two games out, though, he suffered a bone injury to end his hopes of featuring in the Carabao Cup final, a place which would have been fully deserved on the back of his displays this term. Jones, an attacking midfielder in his youth days, has been the Reds’ chief controller in the middle: excellent ball retention, intelligent positional play, endless work rate and still with his original attacking traits to claim five goals and three assists this term.
It puts him 95th percentile of similar positioned players for goals scored across the past year, the top 88% for touches and top 79% for shot attempts. More conclusively, he has been a key tactical component for Klopp’s team sitting top of the Premier League, into one cup final and pushing strongly in another two, even after £140m expenditure in that area of the park last summer.
The injury, though, robs him of a Wembley appearance and leaves Liverpool needing to choose an alternative in midfield – meaning, more than likely, there will be three players in the starting lineup who are generally seen as back-ups.
The issue in that precise position is that options are diminished: the aforementioned Thiago is out again, Szoboszlai’s comeback was derailed and Stefan Bajcetic hasn’t been seen all season. That leaves one from two of Harvey Elliott and Ryan Gravenberch. The latter is the stronger, the newer signing, the older player. But the former has impressed numerous times off the bench and, having just played his 100th game for the club against Luton – and scored – he might have done enough to shoulder his way into this lineup, alongside Alexis Mac Allister with Wataru Endo behind them. Either way, whichever of Elliott and Gravenberch are given the nod, they’ll have a crucial role. The attacking onus on them is obvious, but it’s in the pressing and transition work where Liverpool obliterated Chelsea three weeks ago. That’s where they have to have a huge impact at Wembley to be a success.
Further back there will be two more unfamiliar names compared to the regular XI. Caoimhin Kelleher was always set to start the final in goal, this being ‘his’ competition, but with Alisson sidelined he’s a more regular No. 1 for now. He was a penalty shootout hero two years ago; he’ll need an improvement on his 90-minute showing, perhaps, if the Reds are to lift silverware again. And, at right-back, Alexander-Arnold is obviously a big miss – but his absence hasn’t been felt as much as it might have been previously.
That’s down to two excellent performers stepping in at full-back, Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley. Both arguably deserve to start on recent performances, but the suspicion is that the latter, the younger, has had enough of an impact to warrant a place at Wembley – especially as he was so central to much of the damage inflicted on Chelsea at Anfield.
In 68 minutes in that game, Bradley created four chances, claimed two assists, made seven passes into the final third, won eight duels, two tackles, four free-kicks and scored his first goal for Liverpool. An absolute firecracker performance has earned him the trust of the manager and a shot at a first senior medal.
Jones’ absence will be felt most keenly on account of the control, join-up play and defensive cover he brings, and the knock-on effect is that right channel of Liverpool – Bradley behind, Elliott ahead – will be strung-together with different names. If they perform to a similar level, though, a record tenth EFL Cup could be theirs.
(Image from IMAGO)
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