Liverpool Injury Concerns Make the Holiday Fixtures More Challenging

Liverpool go into this weekend’s match against Wolves at home with a much bigger ask than Arne Slot would have wanted, as many players are out or doubtful for the match.

While Alexander Isak’s long absence

has grabbed the headlines, the squad as a whole is wearing thin. Conor Bradley, who just returned from injury, felt a hamstring issue flare up against Tottenham and is one of Slot’s “wait and see” injury list players — the Liverpool head coach has not made a confirmed ruling on his availability in his comments to the press. Conversely, we know that Joe Gomez, who was out for Tottenham, has already also been ruled out for this weekend. As such, Slot will choose between an also newly-returned Jeremie Frimpong, an out-of-position (but very good) Dominik Szoboszlai, or a relatively untested Calvin Ramsay for Wolves.

Florian Wirtz also provided some alarm bells after Tottenham, though his hamstring-related substitution was apparently precautionary given Slot did not mention him amongst his injury updates. As for Frimpong, the winger came off purely to deal with his bloody head (well, mouth, really) injury, but was substituted for personnel-on-the-pitch reasons rather than injury ones: Slot felt Liverpool under pressure, and did not want to remain a man down for the required amount of time.

Cody Gakpo might well return after his muscle injury to feature against Wolves (late December was the estimate), but without Isak and with Mohamed Salah away at AFCON the attacking ranks feel somewhat thin, particularly if Szoboszlai is forced to do a job in defense.

It is worth noting, too, that Liverpool’s bench is thinned by Wataru Endō‘s injury. With the Japanese defensive midfielder out until January, relief from the bench for the defensive side of midfield is basically non-existent, even if the positions as a whole feel filled with Ryan Gravenberch, Curtis Jones, Alexis Mac Allister, and Dominik Szoboszlai all available.

Arne Slot would have preferred to do without these tests, but this is of course the challenge in managing the busiest league during the festive season.