By RICHARD JOLLY
Senior Football Correspondent
When Liverpool were looking for Jurgen Klopp’s successor, Arne Slot ticked a lot of boxes. He had overperformed relative to his budget. He had improved players with his coaching skills. He played the right brand of football. He was seen as a fine communicator.
One factor attracted less attention at the time. Liverpool noted Slot’s approach to sports science, to Feyenoord’s medical record. “At Feyenoord we kept our players fit – available is a better word – but we were always one of the fittest teams in the league as well when it came to running or the last 25 minutes of the game,” Slot said this month. As Liverpool head to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, unbeaten in 22 league games and 17 points clear of the reigning champions, there are smaller numbers their rivals may seek to emulate.
Slot is definitely without Joe Gomez and Conor Bradley for the trip to Manchester City. Cody Gakpo is a doubt. But only Nottingham Forest, with two, entered the weekend with fewer injuries. Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola was hinting at clearout at the Etihad, citing the need for players whose abilities included durability. City have been losing a player per game of late: Manuel Akanji was hurt at home against Real Madrid, Erling Haaland in the win over Newcastle, John Stones away in the Bernabeu.
City’s season has been sunk by one injury above all others: that of Rodri, compounded by their negligence in compiling a squad without another defensive midfielder. But it has also been notable for cluster injuries, a host in the same position – particularly centre-back – and players who have had stop-start campaigns, returning only to get sidelined again. Their bodies have broken down: perhaps because of age or being overworked at a club that, by the end of this season, may have played 536 games in nine years under Guardiola, an average touching 60 a season.
And so some may be pensioned off. “That is the reality,” said Guardiola. “We have to sit down with the doctors, physios, the players, agents, and be clear that some of them cannot sustain every three days, every month or two months playing every three days. This is the reality. There is one more year and the World Cup. Already, a lot of players who cannot sustain that, we have in the past every week in, week out. The reality is for the future, if we want to be there again, we need players fit and available.”
It was a hint about City’s old guard. Kevin De Bruyne is out of contract in the summer, touching 34, and has become increasingly injury-prone in recent years. There was a reference to a younger Belgian, Jeremy Doku. “The last game he played was Ipswich, he was unbelievable, and then afterwards he was injured.”
He may be gearing up to deliver bad news to two centre-backs in their thirties. Nathan Ake has had three spells on the sidelines in a campaign when he has only started 12 games. Stones has begun 13 and is in his fourth spell out, which threatens to mean he is absent for two months. That Guardiola bought two younger players in their position, Vitor Reis and Abdukodir Khusanov, has suggested his forward planning has begun at the back.
City’s injury-prone contingent also includes Ederson, Mateo Kovacic and Jack Grealish, two in their thirties and the other joining them in September. Grealish has had another stop-start season; it suggests that if he can find a taker, Guardiola may deem it necessary to call a halt to his City career.
Certainly, he could do with more who are invariably available: as Rodri was before his cruciate injury, as Haaland tends to be, as Bernardo Silva, if worn down by his workload, and the seemingly indestructible Josko Gvardiol. Time will tell if Guardiola’s quartet of new recruits, with Nico Gonzalez at least offering a strapping frame and Omar Marmoush pace, have the staying power Guardiola covets.
Because the Catalan prefers to work with a smaller squad, which backfired this season, there is a still greater need to keep the vast majority fit. “More than 50 games is too much for the players in the season,” he said, worried about a future of 65 or 70. “It’s too much for the human being. The body cannot sustain [it].”
The limit may be around 50. In City’s treble season of 2022-23, 11 of Guardiola’s core played at least 47 games, three others 39 or more. When they did a domestic treble in 2018-19, 11 made 44 or more appearances. Last season, 13 of them reached 42 games. This year’s numbers reflect those used more than City would have wanted, like Ilkay Gundogan and Rico Lewis, and those who may have been injured as an indirect consequence of being overworked, such as Akanji.
So, envious glances may be directed at Anfield, at the relatively empty treatment table. Slot is entitled to argue Liverpool’s success has not come from fortune with injuries alone; he was, however, very keen to bring his performance coach Ruben Peeters with him from Feyenoord. But he left a raft of players out for the FA Cup defeat at Plymouth as there was the concern they were in what Arsene Wenger called “the red zone”, the stage where injury became a greater risk.
He could argue that, at various points this season, he has been without Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson, Kostas Tsimikas, Ibrahima Konate, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa. Liverpool have still found a way.
But then there are those who, while Dominik Szoboszlai and Darwin Nunez have missed games with illness, have not been injured: most notably Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, also and significantly, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Luis Diaz.
Luck or judgement? Liverpool would say the latter. City may have been unfortunate but Guardiola is keen to avoid a situation where injury-prone players get injured. And that principle may underpin his rebuilding, as he discards those who can’t play every three days and who can’t play their part.
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