Arne Slot has fixed Jurgen Klopp's BIGGEST mistake

Liverpool suffered an injury crisis through the final two seasons of Jurgen Klopp’s reign.

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During the 2022/23 season, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Arthur Melo, Curtis Jones, Thiago Alcantara, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita, Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino and Darwin Nunez all had significant spells on the sidelines.

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Ultimately, Liverpool did not have enough in the tank and finished outside the Champions League places - causing devastating financial consequences.

And last season the issues were just as stark. Over the course of the campaign, Liverpool lost top performers like Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Konate, Andy Robertson, Jones, Dominik Szoboszlai, Jota and Mohamed Salah to various injuries.

In the case of Alexander-Arnold, Szoboszlai and Salah, meanwhile, problems were compounded due to the players getting re-injured upon their initial comebacks after time out. Thiago and Stefan Bajcetic lost practically the whole season.

Things were so bad that Klopp had to summon his academy players in order to fulfil fixtures including the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea.

When Arne Slot was hired it was due in part to the success he and his staff had at Feyenoord in keeping players fit and available. In contrast, Klopp had been criticised within the corridors of power at Anfield for the frequency with which his stars were laid up.

Klopp blamed for injuries

Duncan Castles, on The Transfers Podcast, revealed that there was a considerable amount of upset backstage at Liverpool as Klopp jettisoned a previously implemented system for injury avoidance.

“One of the things that happened under Jurgen Klopp in his second-last season, which was the season of multiple injuries, was that Klopp stopped using an AI-led analysis of players physical output on the field and in training, which was designed to flag up whether players were likely to get injured or not,” the journalist said.

“And I understand that caused a fair amount of discontent within the backroom staff at Liverpool because they felt the system would be working well and it got overridden by Klopp.”

Slot fixes Klopp mistakes

And now in a report for the Athletic, it’s been revealed just how Slot has managed to curb Liverpool’s injury issues.

“Specialising in periodisation, [Ruben] Peeters helps to map out training plans and individual timetables for each player to manage workload for rest and recovery and to avoid overloading players,” it states.

“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.”

Liverpool injuries DOWN this season

By this stage last season, Liverpool had suffered 19 so-called “time loss” injuries - which means injuries that kept players out for at least one match.

That total has come down to 14 this season under Slot. He has managed to keep Van Dijk, Salah and Ryan Gravenberch in his lineup for EVERY Premier League fixture with Fulham the only other top flight club to start at least three players in every game.

“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,” the report states.

According to data released by the BBC, Liverpool suffered 1383 “days lost to injury” across the 2023-24 Premier League season.

“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,” the report reads.

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The Reds will be hopeful that the measures put in place by Slot and his team will be enough to see them through to the end of the season without too much injury disruption.

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