The woes continued for Liverpool FC, who have now dropped their last three matches across all competitions. In losing 2-1 to Chelsea yesterday, in their final march before the international break, Liverpool has now fallen out of first place, and down to second in the Premier League table. The runners-up of the last three seasons, Arsenal, have now taken over first place. Injury was also added to insult, for the Merseyside club yesterday, as central defender Ibrahima Konate picked up a quadriceps injury, and had to be subbed off in the second half.
Ibrahima Konate
Reds boss Arne Slot said that he had planned to substitute Konate anyway, but once he got hurt, his hand was forced, and he had to do it sooner than he wanted.
“I don’t know if it is a big injury, but what I do know is he limped a little bit and when I asked him he said he felt his quad a little bit,” Slot said in postgame yesterday. “Then, for me, all alarm bells go off because in another sprint you never know if that is going to go good.
“It was also already a substitution I had in mind, maybe for a few minutes or a little bit later, because the right centre-back had a lot of ball possession and we needed to create from that position. We all know Ryan [Gravenberch] is quite good in that.
“It might be OK that he went off early enough but it was clear I had to take him off because he was limping.”
In other words, we now face a waiting game here. The international break will probably be good for him, and we should learn more about his situation this week. Only then can we start to really speculate on when
Alisson Becker
Slot also provided an update on his number one goalkeeper this weekend. It turns out Alisson (who is battling a thigh injury) likely won’t be coming back right after the international break. A late October, or perhaps even early November, return is more likely.
“It’s clear that he’s not there on Saturday, and clearly, he is not going to play for Brazil. I would be surprised if he would be there for the first game after the international break, but from there on, things can go faster or a bit slower…’
Giovanni Leoni
He of course remains out for the season with a ACL tear. And that completes the run down of Liverpool’s injury situation.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter