Virgil van Dijk’s ACL injury could have come at the worst possible time for the Premier League champions. Jurgen Klopp’s side were displaying some rather under-par showings prior to the Dutch centre-back being taken out in a rash manner by Everton’s Jordan Pickford during last month’s Merseyside derby stalemate.
Further injury diagnosis of the colossal defender’s damaged knee in the aftermath of the game at Goodison Park confirmed that Van Dijk was set to spend quite possibly the remainder of the fledging season on the sidelines, with the 29-year-old set to undergo surgery before involving himself in a strenuous rehabilitation programme under the advisement of the Liverpool FC medical staff.
In Van Dijk’s injury making him a season-long absentee for the Merseyside Reds, the Champions of England were dealt a massive blow to their hopes of reclaiming the coveted league title and staying clear from the likes of a high-flying Chelsea side and nearest title challengers, Manchester City.
The ex-Southampton man has arguably been Liverpool FC’s most influential performer over the last three seasons, and ever since his move to Anfield in the winter of 2018, Van Dijk has birthed the transformation of the Reds’ backline, which earlier boasted of horrid defensive stats when guarded by names such as Dejan Lovren and Mamadou Sakho.
It has to be admitted that Van Dijk’s spell in the Liverpool FC shirt acted as a frontier for other centre-backs at Anfield, most notably Joe Gomez, to step up the challenge of competing for the other spot available at the heart of the defence in Klopp’s lineup.
Joel Matip, perhaps the most underrated central defender playing in England’s top-flight football division, has had a recurring run-in with injury niggles over the course of his stay at Anfield. The Cameroonian international has struggled for match fitness on a continuous basis even this season, and his return to first-team football last weekend against Manchester City in the Premier League was his first appearance on the football pitch in over a month.
Whether Matip can stay clear from another month-long spell on the recovery table remains to be seen, and Klopp will surely be praying for that to happen should recent news of Joe Gomez’s potentially serious injury during England training on Wednesday is believed to be true.
The 23-year-old Gomez has had a topsy turvy season so far, with him coming under fire for being the worst performer on the pitch in Liverpool FC’s utterly shambolic 7-2 loss to Aston Villa, and then redeeming himself with a series of strong showings against Ajax in the Champions League and West Ham United in league football.
But with Gareth Southgate sounding out early warning signs over Gomez’s current situation, Jurgen Klopp is left in a state of dilemma in the light of an injury hailstorm hitting his side’s defensive core ahead of a gruesome fixture list for Liverpool FC.
Liverpool FC supporters will surely be clamouring now for additional reinforcements to be brought at Anfield in January, as the duo of Nathaniel Phillips and Rhys Willams, despite a solid set of performances from both players, are not really first-team regulars to be counted upon by Klopp in such times of distress.
Schalke’s Ozan Kabak and Brighton star Ben White are just two names amongst a host of centre-backs understood to be on Jurgen Klopp’s radar, and it seems as if the Liverpool FC boss is left with no choice other than making the move for either of the players on his shortlist to fill in for the injured players at his club.
The defence is one department on the pitch that has seen a whirlwind change in the positive direction under Jurgen Klopp’s reign at the managerial hot seat and the Reds’ fanbase will be hoping that a stroke of severely bad luck with injuries this season does not act as a barrier for their side to retain their title-winning credentials and establishing supremacy across world football.
