Liverpool suffer multiple key injuries in Brentford victory

Liverpool extended their lead atop the Premier League table on Saturday by thumping Brentford 4-1 away from home. Along with the relatively easy victory, manager Jurgen Klopp also welcomed back superstar Mohamed Salah as well. The Egyptian attacker previously suffered a hamstring injury while on national team duty. Although he was initially named on the bench, Salah entered the fray as a substitute.

Unfortunately for the Reds, Klopp was forced to make the move earlier than expected. Fellow forward Diogo Jota went down just before the halftime break with an apparent knee injury. The Portugal international went down awkwardly during a clash with a Bees defender. While Jota was able to get up fairly quickly, he was eventually taken off of the pitch in a stretcher.

Liverpool injuries forced Klopp to make multiple substitutes at half-time

Jota wasn’t the only Liverpool player to be off before the second half. Prior to the Portuguese playmaker’s issue, Curtis Jones also limped off. Nevertheless, Ryan Gravenberch replaced Jones in the 34th minute of the match.

Klopp then swapped out starter Darwin Nunez at halftime for Cody Gakpo. Following the win, the manager claimed that the striker also fell awkwardly before the break. Klopp felt as if he should make the move at halftime rather than use another substitute slot in the second half.

“It is mixed emotions, we lost players which we don’t know how serious it is,” Klopp told TNT Sports in his postgame interview.

“It doesn’t look great for either of them. We will see. It was never easy for us, at the moment it is fine. We have 57 points and in a few days play again.”

The Red boss was then quick to point towards some bad luck regarding injuries. “Definitely,” responded Klopp. “I think there was a knock on Curtis [Jones]. It was a challenge with Diogo [Jota] as well and Darwin [Nunez] we are not sure if he has something or not, he felt something.”

Potential injury crisis coming at an awful time for club

Liverpool fans will surely take the three points on the day, but will also be concerned about a potential injury crisis going forward.

The Merseyside club were already without several key players for the fixture with Brentford.

This included typical starters Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Thiago Alcantara. However, Joel Matip, Stefan Bajcetic, and Ben Doak remain on the sidelines as well.

Although they currently lead the league by two points, the timing of the series of injuries is obviously less than ideal. The title race will almost certainly go down to the wire between Liverpool, Manchester City, and Arsenal and the Reds need to get healthy fast.

Fending off City, in particular, is a tough task even with a fully fit squad. After all, Pep Guardiola’s side has collected five of the last six Premier League titles.

City enter their matchup with Chelsea on Saturday five points behind Liverpool, but do have two games at hand.

Photo credits: IMAGO / Propaganda Photo : IMAGO / Sportimage