Enjoying the most prolific campaign of his career, an ankle injury derailed the Portuguese during the final third of the season, before he suffered a hamstring injury on international duty with Portugal last month. That setback ensured he was playing catch-up when Liverpool reported back for pre-season training at the start of last week and sat out open training on Monday and the Reds’ friendly defeat to Manchester United on Tuesday as a result. Now, just as he had returned to training, the forward has undergone scans on a suspected recurrence of the hamstring problem, with it feared he might have damaged the same muscle as on international duty when training on Wednesday evening.
Jurgen Klopp said: “Diogo, unlucky eh? Diogo was not involved against United because he had an injury from the end of last season. He trained yesterday fully and got injured again. That’s really not cool. We have to wait for the results and he had an assessment this morning. Then we have to see. Is it his hamstring? We will see. It is in the same region.”
Having had seven experienced attacking options last year, a drop-off to five is noticeable but without detriment. Lose one of those quintet to injury and then options are suddenly starting to look a little thin, compared to last season’s attacking masses at least. Of course, youngsters Carvalho and Harvey Elliott add to that quota to enhance Klopp’s numbers. But it is the resetting of a cycle which could see Liverpool call upon promising potential rather than proven talent, even if the German is left suitably satisfied.
Jurgen Klopp said“I know what we can use immediately with Darwin and then we have to see what we can use from there. He is a No.9 who can play on the wing,” he said of his attacking options earlier this week. “If you compare with Sadio, he was a winger who could play as the No.9. That is the difference. We have Luis Diaz and Fabio Carvalho for the left wing as well, Bobby (Firmino) who is 100% back when you see training. It is like ‘wow’ he is definitely back. Mo Salah will be here a long time and we have Harvey Elliott, so we have so many different, interesting options. That is what I like. We did not lose only Sadio. We lost Divock Origi and Taki Minamino and we all know that without those two boys we would not have won a cup competition last year. It makes sense after a while, as much as we miss Sadio, Div and Taki – that you need to refresh your efforts and the way you play. It always depends on the quality of the player. They have different qualities. What can we do? I have an idea, but I am really open to what the boys offer. We could play with a settled formation or use options to change the dynamics on the pitch. There is no decision made yet.”
The loss of Mane in particular, but Minamino and Origi too, has created a void and it remains to be seen who can step up to fill it. Hopes are inevitably high when it comes to Carvalho and Elliott, and club-record signing Nunez to an extent too for that matter, and, while they are not yet Premier League proven, you would not bet against them stepping up and being counted upon if and when required.
