Injury+suspension list and updates.

[jr81]

Cheers for compiling the list.

Having 2 of our attackers miss approximately half a season of League games each was not very helpful. Nor was the persistent issue of a lack of availability from certain mids. The two combined - difficult.

The flip side is that if (one almighty "if") we could have more availability from our attackers and have our midfield complimented by at least one young/fit player (how big an impact will Mac Allister prove to have?) then you can see the potential to finish with a higher points total next season and go from there.

Yes - the combination of missing midfielders and attackers definitely didn't help us last year. This is why we needed a proper midfield signing last season.

As you say, just having the attackers available more often and having another midfield available for the majority of the season would help improve us a lot compared to last year.

[CCTV]

I cant seem to upload images. I wanted to show the data using a chart to see what it actually shows. I tried to tabulate it below.

In summary:

1. I have counted that we missed 197 games from injury.
2. The worst offenders were no surprise really - KEITA and ARTHUR.
3. Removing those two from the total count and the others missed a total 145 games through injury. Diaz would the worst offender then but he had a long term injury.
4. Top 5 injured players contained 3 midfielders. 2 are no longer with us. Thiago is showing himself to be a problem from an injury point of view. He missed 55% of our league games through injury. We need to sign MORE modfielders.
5. Konate is a concern. He had a poor record before singing for us and this season he has missed 45% of our league games through injury. We NEED another CB this summer.
6. Henderson and Gomez's injury record were good this year. However their game time was more restricted. Maybe for Henderson he was being handled more this season?
7. Our defenders are pretty robust apart from Konate. They missed a total of 36 games in total. Konate made up 17 of those. The others contributed to missing 19 games in total. So our defenders seem robust but with question marks over Konate. TAA missed none through injury. I think Matip is always likely to pick up injuries but didnt play that much this year to pick them up so his numbers arent too bad but still missed 9 games.
8. Our attackers have quite high numbers for missing games.
Diaz had the bad injury.
Jota misses games. This was also the case the year before if I remember correctly.
Salah and Gakpo the only 2 not to miss a game. Salah is a machine.
Nunez picked a few niggly injuries this year. Something to watch next year.
9. Allison missed no games this year through injury where he was getting a bit of a reputation in previous seasons for picking up little injuries.

NAME	GAMES MISSED	%MISSED
Keita	29	76%
Arthur	23	61%
Diaz	21	55%
Thiago	20	53%
Konate	17	45%
Jota	16	42%
Bobby	12	32%
Jones	11	29%
Matip	9	24%
Ox	9	24%
Nunez	9	24%
Kelleher	8	21%
Virgil	4	11%
Gomez	4	11%
Hendo	3	8%
Robertson	2	5%

Is any of this a surprise? I dont think so. We all knew Keita was injury prone. Artur was a disaster signing.

We need to watch Konate, Thiago and Jota. These 3 are expected to be regular starters if they are here next year.

Our defence and attack make up 7 of the 10 outfield positions in 433.
They have less injuries combined than midfield with just 3 starts.
30% of the team beat 70% of the team for missed games through injury.

On paper midfield had up to 11 bodies for 3 positions. Nearly 4 times as many bodies as starts !

Fab, Hendo, Thiago - Klopps trusted 3...
Jones, Elliott, Bajcetic - pups of sorts
Milner, Keita, Ox, Melo & Carvalho* - Departed
4 maybe 5?

Defence had 7-8 & 6 in attack. Bobby departed now
13-14 bodies for 7 spots.

MacAllister is a good addition to a shocking Midfield, one made stronger by the departure of 4 players alone. You lose an old Milner making midfield weaker, but you lose Ox, Keita & Melo. A net positive sadly.