I think we took things a gamble too far.
We gambled on VvD being an ever present, playing him every game, never rotating or resting him (something we also do too much with our first choice forwards) and we’ve been lucky he hasn’t had knocks and niggles but it doesn’t matter how tough players are eventually they will get injured. Playing them flat out just heightens the risk of something twanging or increases the number of opportunities that someone will clatter them.
This is what football is and why you don’t just have a starting 11 anymore but we took a few more gambles too that mean it’s the worst possible timing.
We gambled on Matip being fit so therefore not replacing him with a more durable player. We’ve done this a few seasons on a trot now and it’s yet to pay off. The only reason we haven’t suffered is because of the quality of others.
We gambled on Gomez being such a talent at such a young, inexperienced age. But as much as this was the right thing to do he has hit that rough patch that was almost inevitable and unfortunately it’s been awful timing.
We gambled on squad size. Klopp likes a smaller more tight knit squad but this season was always going to be a challenge due to congestion and Covid quarantine absences. We should have gone for the deepest squad we could assemble. The Hoever deal was a good one but we didn’t need to take it. We also tried to sell Philips and loan VDB but luckily for us failed on both.
We gambled on not replacing Lovren. I actually was on board with Fabinho being the in house replacement (especially as we strengthened CM so wouldn’t miss Fabinho and kept Philips as emergency cover). But with everything else Fabinho should have moved to being a CB exclusively and only emergency cover at CM. We gambled further by using Fabinho at CM still even though he was required so much at CB.
We’ve probably already got plans to bring in a CB to replace Lovren and/or Matip and only delayed them with Fabinho covering and Matip staying.
With VvD, Gomez, Matip and Fabinho we had false strength as we weren’t using Fabinho just at CB and Matip is so injury prone so we had 2 full CBs and 2 half options. Obviously now this has been blasted by VvD getting such a big injury, he was always going to get an injury at some point (we’d rode our luck big time) but we are unlucky how drastic it has been when it’s happened.
To negate the situation a bit Fabinho now surely has to be used exclusively at CB and as it stands a starter. Matip will come in and out, Gomez needs managing to make sure he’s out of his funk and doesn’t slip back in. Phillips, VdB, Williams and Koumetio means we have plenty of depth (if none reliable yet) for FA Cup and maybe dead rubbers in CL whilst the main 3 concentrate on the league and harder CL matches.
In January we need to address whatever CB we were looking to bring in and try to move heaven and earth to make it happen for us. We can still be strongish up to Jan as long as Matip is semi reliable and Gomez doesn’t suffer too bad with his form. If the new guy takes up quite well he could play his way into a starting role here. Or one of the kids might seize their moment.
Either way it’s not all doom and gloom and when you look at the mess that most of our rivals call on for their defences I don’t think this should hold us back. If possible we need to improve our 2nd Choice GK in Jan too though.