Expert reveals ‘truth’ behind Liverpool’s summer plans as brutal details emerge
The Liverpool pre-season programme may be brutal – but the “truth” is that it helps them avoid a long injury list during the campaign itself.
That is the view of injury expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in medicine and data analysis.
Per The Athletic last Wednesday (25 May), Liverpool employ an approach known as ‘beasting’ in pre-season.
The technique involves players pushing themselves past the point of exhaustion in sprinting exercises on day one of their return to training.
The Merseysiders played 63 matches in a mammoth 2021-22 campaign, and many of their stars are now set to take part in an international quadruple-header.
But Dinnery insists that Liverpool’s exhausting summer regime is backed up by the science.
“It’s often referenced by the players themselves as a beasting,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“It makes it sound as though the players are being absolutely thrashed with no rationale.
“However, we know Liverpool use expertise to meticulously manage their players. They don’t leave any stone unturned.
“It’s pushing your body within the parameters in which you’re going to get those benefits and you’re not going to break down.
“When you play 60-plus games per season, you’ve got a target on your back. You’re one of the best in the world, and everyone is going to raise their game against you.
“You need to go out there knowing you can cope with whatever comes your way.
“In terms of time-loss injuries, Liverpool had a high number of absences. But the truth of the situation is that, when you put that into context, they had one of the lowest injury rates in the league.
“That is testament to the collective work in pre-season. That is the cornerstone. You need to replicate the demands of the game in order to mitigate the risk going forward.”
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