Blame Fixture Congestion, not Klopp, for Liverpool Injuries

Two more Liverpool players limped off the pitch with hamstring injuries on Tuesday night against Stoke. Dejan Lovren and Philippe Coutinho both look set for at least a few weeks spent on the sidelines, and that’s the best case scenario. Kolo Toure for a time looked set to become the third when he pulled up late, but it has since been reported that the veteran defender only suffered cramping.

Some combination of congested fixture list, the practices of Liverpool’s trainers, and simple bad luck seem the most likely culprits from afar. Having picked up 12 hamstring injuries since he took charge, though, some have been wondering if manager Jürgen Klopp is running his players too hard between matches and if this might be the real reason why Liverpool have lost so many to hamstring injuries in recent months.

"Maybe I can look at our training methods," said Klopp when asked about it following Tuesday’s costly victory over Stoke City. "Now we don’t train. We only recover and there is no training. But I am responsible for these things so if you want to make me responsible for hamstring strains then it’s okay. We have five hamstring injuries. It’s not a problem, it’s my responsibility to see what we can do after this game."

Given how densely packed the fixture list has been for Liverpool over the holiday period, it’s hardly a surprise to learn the team haven’t actually had time to do a lot of training—that it’s mostly been recovering from the last game and going straight into the next. It’s a point midfielder Adam Lallana was keen to press when he was asked similarly about the recent spate of hamstring injuries following Tuesday’s match.

"We’ve had a change of manager this season," said Lallana when asked about it by the Liverpool Echo. "When that happens lads look to impress more and give more, but I don’t think these injuries have got anything to do with changes in our training. We’ve had so many games recently we’ve mainly been doing recovery sessions between games, so it’s not as if the training has been really intensive. You can’t blame that."