Glue factory?
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Strange thing is I remember, maybe I am wrong, he was pretty injury free or at least in a normal frequency for a typical player before he came to Liverpool. Fitness wise, he pretty much went downhill during his stint here. Wonder how much of our training and style contributed to that or maybe itās just his luck.
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The injuries tend to pile up later on. Especially if he wasnāt maintaining proper regiments earlier.
Iāll have to check for his injury record , you might be right that he was relatively injury free in Leipzig. But poor fitness standards w.r.t injury management etc would lead to increasingly bad injuries. He could get away with his body supporting him etc in Leipzig but that only became a ticking timebomb
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Sounds more like our luck.
I believe he faked his age. He peaked early at 21 and started injuries frequently at 25. I think he might actually be 4-5 years older than his profile.
Iām 58, still playing, and have had far less injuries so its not age 
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Not unheard of but I do believe that football at that highest level would have age determination tests.
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I believe he was injured a lot the year that we loaned him back for. Made me wonder whether they were misusing him.
Then I started feeling bad because the thought was based on nothing more than a sharp increase in injuriesā¦
In the end, who knows.
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His national team continually fucked him by overplaying him, seeing him get injured and then rushing him back before he was ready.
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England did that with Sturridge as well.
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Yep. Thanks Woy!
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Been thinking if we got him when the deal was struck, we might have seen a better player during his time with us. That interim 12month period he remained with RB, to me, destroyed his mental attitude towards the game. His devotion, dedication, attitude and drive, seemed to get left behind in Germany. Not sure if his large entourage did him any favours either, but just like an up and coming street fighter, once they have tasted Champagne, they are unlikely to be the same streetfighter ever again.
Unfortunate the way his time here unfolded, in retrospect, he was probably the biggest blot on the Jurgen copybook.
Always important to test a players wesolve, and if that puts him out for a year so be it. Itās like dunking witches.
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We can point to AFCON in the summer of 2019. His first season in 18-19 was a bit disappointing, but by the spring he had started to find some real form only to pick up a nasty injury early in the first leg of the CL semi against Barca after an awkward looking fall. It was a bad enough injury that it was immediately clear to us he would not play again that season, but he was still selected for AFCON that summer. He aggravated it in a pre tournament friendly, making him unfit to start their first game, but was brought off the bench in attempt to salvage a losing position and immediately turned the game around. He then started the second game while clearly not fit, made it even worse and had to be subbed off and not get another minute across their final 2 games. He came back to pre-season still hurt and wasnt fit enough to start any games until December and was really only ever fit temporarily from then on.
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Yep, exactly this I was thinking of!
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I remember his first game for us and he looked brilliant.
I think he delivered that twice after that.
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At Leipzig, he looked the complete modern midfielder. Pity the injuries took their toll when he was with us.
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