Too early to speak about Nunez and Diaz in that sense but Henderson used to have a horrendous injury record, while Jota had three big injuries while here and I think it’s not unfair to call him injury-prone.
That said, I think that Firmino will go on to have a poor injury record until the end of his career because he played just too much football over the last eight years. The niggles he’s been picking up over the last two seasons have slowly been building up and making him miss a lot of games (35 according to Transfermarkt, excluding one missed through COVID).
“The best way to sum up Bobby’s contribution to Liverpool would be that, without him, nothing would have been possible. The way we wanted to play, the way we went about our business, everything started with Bobby, with his pressing and his technical ability. He was our main man. When you look back on the great moments, Bobby was always involved in them – such an important player in helping us achieve the success that we did.”
Hendo’s games per season: 48, 44, 40, 54, 26, 27, 41, 44, 40, 28, 57, 41+.
Currently averaging 40.8 games per season, for 12 years. To have 9 seasons of 40-50 games for a Liverpool side, in a lot of problematic seasons, is still brilliant availability. Let’s not take that for granted.
26 and 27 was the frustrating heel issue that occured and there was no real way of getting it solved. 28 was the groin issue. Had other issues of course, injuries do not only happen inside a season.
But I can’t say Hendo’s injury record was horrendous. That is more for other players who were much more injured.
I sense a lot of frustration over injuries, availability and so on lately. I get it. It also has to do with how we operate, obviously, but it has also given us results and trophies. Luck always plays a certain part, but is certainly not the only factor. Some balance needs to be found. We can’t expect to challenge on a few fronts if we have 5-6 injuries for almost the whole season. That is not sustainable.
Back to Bobby. Yeah, overall we must say what him, Mane and Salah provided in terms of availability was outstanding.
It’s the right time to part company with Bobby. I’d argue a few too many decisions at the club have been made with heart rather than head, and this is a head one. Bobby is getting on, he is on a big chunk of money and he is starting miss a lot a lot of games through injury.
He leaves a legend and with nothing but fondness and best wishes. If he wants to go and finish his career somewhere sunny, then good luck to him. He’s always be a Liverpool legend.
Pep Lijnders on Firmino: “Only few [players] give joy, trophies & provide a team with its whole identity. There were some other false nines before who did it, but I feel privileged to be able to say that I was there when Bobby did it for one of the most iconic clubs in football.”
Got myself a bag of these to start peeling at about 5pm tomorrow…
Just in case some neighbour calls round when the floods have started - Grown man needs to have an excuse at the ready and put the blame on something eh
I guess the silver lining of Torres destroying my heart, is that it could only happen once.
Love Bobby, but generally ambivalent about his leaving. It’s the right time and we already have a ‘replacement’ though I doubt anyone could truly do what he did at his best.
But there’s no forcing his way out, no being screwed over for a fee, no worry about his replacement.
He has cemented his place in Liverpool history and we can thank him and wish him well for the future.
Robertson on Firmino:
Si Senor 
