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Today, Jürgen Klopp says there are no fresh injury concerns ahead of the trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday. Good news. But I’m going to go ahead and risk jinxing it by musing on the possibility that the days of Liverpool’s widespread hamstring tears are behind us. The squad has been relatively injury-free for the start of the season. Nobody has pulled up suddenly in that ‘Gah, my hamstring!’ pose. There has been some leg cramping, but nothing worrisome. Leg cramping is probably good for you anyway. Heck, back in my day we used to get leg cramps for fun. But those were different times.
“There are a few knocks,” said the manager, “how it always is, nothing else.”
It’s important to remember that the players are constantly dealing with muscle stuff and ligament things, aches and bruises and other very technical language that I won’t get into, but that I absolutely know. And sometimes, like people do, a player gets sick, gets a bug, a virus and the head spins and the guts get kooky and the whole world gets a little bit fuzzy for awhile. So, it goes with James Milner this week.
“Milly was ill on Tuesday, so no chance for him,” said Klopp. “Yesterday, he had a running session to look how he feels.
“Two days, I’m not sure. Apart from the knocks from the last game, (the rest) should be okay.”
Milner has played every league match this season as Liverpool’s number one left back. That’s important for the team, that stability. But, Alberto Moreno had a decent night out at Anfield against Spurs. Tottenham’s Kieran Trippier certainly gave him some problems but overall, at least to my memory (poor memory disclosure) Moreno handled the job. It wouldn’t be catastrophic to see the Spanish full back get the nod at Selhurst Park this weekend.
Now, if you’ll excuse me I need to go counter balance that hamstring jinx by walking backwards through my garden gate singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” while drinking coffee from my LFC mug and shaving a perfect likeness of Sadio Mane into my chest hair. Works every time.