Liverpool FC Premier League Champions 24/25 - Talk /Gossip/Rumours

Ajax have always been a selling club and are under financial pressure, they had made it known that their players were available for transfer once the group stage of the Europa League was completed last Thursday. If Liverpool had wanted to sign Jorrel Hato, he was available for €25-30M. West Ham, Everton and Tottenham were all reported to have expressed an interest in taking Brian Brobbey on loan, but Ajax would only accept a permanent transfer for a €20-25M fee. There would certainly have been room for negotiation in the fees that they were quoting.

What happened to Henderson last week is no different to how Liverpool have behaved in the past feeding stories to individuals in the media so that the focus is on the player and not the club's motive for doing so.

Gary Lineker's interview with Arne Slot for Football Focus was quite good, but he didn't give away any secrets that hadn't been heard in the press conferences. Presenting Lineker with a #25 shirt at the end was a nice touch.

There's an article in The Athletic this morning for anyone not subscribed. (Apologies if the tables format badly)

It went almost unnoticed amid the celebrations that accompanied another crucial away Premier League victory, but one of the most significant aspects of Liverpool’s win at Bournemouth could be found in who was not part of it.

Joe Gomez and Federico Chiesa did not even make the bench on Saturday — not due to injury, but because there was simply no room for them. Both were understandable absentees, with Gomez only returning from a hamstring injury suffered at the end of December and Chiesa having just completed his first 90 minutes of the campaign against PSV, yet the significance of Arne Slot having a fully fit squad should not be underestimated.

It is a luxury few managers enjoy at any point, but especially at this time of year following the intense Christmas schedule.

Slot’s options are in stark contrast to the injury problems his predecessor, Jurgen Klopp, was experiencing around this time last year. At the end of February 2024, Liverpool were without seven of their most experienced players — Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai, Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez, Mohamed Salah and Ryan Gravenberch — and were turning to youngsters such as Conor Bradley, Jarell Quansah, Bobby Clark, James McConnell and Jayden Danns to plug holes.

They did admirably, playing a significant role in the Carabao Cup final victory against Chelsea, but ultimately the difficulty of phasing players back from injury for the run-in contributed to a late-season slump.

The minimal injury problems (Alexander-Arnold has a muscle issue but is expected to be out for days rather than weeks) is remarkable given Liverpool have played one more game in all competitions than they had at the same stage last season — 36 compared to 35.

Last season, Klopp also had the opportunity to rest and rotate more during the Europa League group stage against lesser opposition. Slot has not had that luxury and, for seven of the eight Champions League league-phase games, fielded a strong side.

A key reason behind Liverpool’s appointment of Slot was his impressive injury-prevention record at AZ and Feyenoord. For three seasons, the Rotterdam side’s player availability levels were above 90 per cent.

Ruben Peeters, formerly head of physical performance at Feyenoord, followed Slot to Merseyside and he plays a pivotal role. Specialising in periodisation, Peeters maps out training plans and individual timetables for each player to manage workload for rest and recovery and to avoid overloading players.

Training days are longer, with it now compulsory for players to eat breakfast together, and sessions last around 90 minutes on an average day — but they are often less intense than under the previous regime, reducing injury risk.

Wellness checks are completed in the morning and, before the start of training, sessions involving yoga or hydrotherapy are encouraged as part of a “body wake-up” process that can also involve breathing techniques.

More time is spent in the gym on individual programmes set out by the performance and medical team, ice baths are encouraged and days off have been scheduled when appropriate. Slot gave his team two days off following the victory against Bournemouth, with the Tottenham semi-final not being played until Thursday evening.

The hard work and preparation are reflected in the number of key first-team players who have played more minutes this season.

LFC minutes played in all competitions (to Feb 3)

At the same stage of last season, Liverpool had suffered 19 time-loss injuries (an injury that rules a player out for at least one Premier League fixture), according to Premierinjuries.com, compared to 14 this season.

This was just before Liverpool hit their worst injury patch of the campaign. By the end of the season, they were in the middle of the pack for days lost to injury — the problem was they picked up so many at the same time.

2023-24: Days lost to injury

Compared to this season, based on data taken from before the most recent set of fixtures, they are suffering only 4.3 injuries per 1,000 minutes played this season, down from 5.9 injuries at this point of last season. That is reflected in the number of days lost this season, with Liverpool dropping to 13th (from 10th across the whole of last season).

2024-25: Days lost to injury

Slot has had to deal with injury problems this season, with Alisson, Harvey Elliott, Jota, Chiesa, Jones, Alexander-Arnold, Kostas Tsimikas, Ibrahima Konate, Bradley and Gomez having all had prolonged spells on the sidelines.

But these issues have largely been staggered, minimising their impact. The closest Liverpool have been to an injury crisis was when Tsimikas, Bradley and Konate were all out at the same time in December, leaving Slot with only five senior defenders, including Alexander-Arnold, who had only just returned from his own injury.

Liverpool have also been able to rely on the incredible fitness of Van Dijk (33) and Salah (32), two of the three players to have started all of their Premier League games this season, alongside Gravenberch. Fulham are the only other side to have had three ever-presents this season.

On the field, there have been minor alterations in how Liverpool have managed players. The squad’s strength and depth have allowed Slot to make second-half changes without weakening the team. The controlled style introduced also appears to be benefitting the players and while intensity remains a key part of Slot’s philosophy, it is not as prominent across the 90 minutes because of the more possession-based approach.

Slot has not been forced into sweeping alterations to his starting XI from league game to league game. They have made the fifth-fewest changes to starting XIs (42) due to the rotations Slot has made across all competitions, averaging 1.8 changes per game. For example, Jones and Szoboszlai have been rotated at No 10 (attacking midfield), due to it arguably being the most physically demanding role within the system.

South Americans Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz have been left out of the first match back from this season's second and third international breaks. After below-par performances in the defeat to Nottingham Forest following the first international fixtures, they have been given more time to adjust following long-distance travel.

The postponed Merseyside derby at the start of December allowed everybody a breather and Slot has used both domestic cups to drastically rotate his side, choosing only the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final to field a stronger team — and even that was rotated.

He left most of his senior starters at home for the final game of the Champions League league phase against PSV.

“The ones that stayed behind, they didn’t rest in the sense that they had three or four days off — they did train, but they didn’t play a game,” Slot told reporters during his pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Bournemouth.

“Hopefully that will help us during the upcoming three or four months because the Premier League and the Champions League is a long season for them, with 10 months in a row non-stop playing games without any weeks off in between.”

The intensity of the second half of the campaign will remain relentless, especially if Liverpool go deep into all four competitions, but the work of the club's strength and conditioning department bodes well.

Newcastle in a final if we get there.

You'd take that in a neutral venue.

Delcan Rice very fortunate not to find himself get booked or even sent off.

That's not even remotely the point here.

The BBC have posted a piece on Conor Bradley's development.

Hmm, I was on the fence before but now ik definitely gonna cheer on Liverpool!

very quiet here… 🧐

Ali injured again?

Just rested

Would like us to win tonight, but not at the cost of injuries, we have bigger fish to fry than a league cup with all due respect.

Ali and Mac rested, would'nt give Sobo any more than 60 mins no matter the score, himself and Mac cover more ground than anyone else and the opportunity to rest/keep them ticking over should'nt be turned down at this stage of the season.

Richardson is such an unlikeable prat

Hmm he is but that wasn't extremely smart from Virgil.

The second angle made it look very intentional.

Virg lucky but could hardly blame him considering who was on the receiving end 😀