Medical insider reveals the ‘truth’ about Liverpool as 10 stars now on casualty list
The current league-worst absence list at Liverpool “looks bad” – but it may be because they have set their injury threshold lower than their peers.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who runs the Premier Injuries site and has a background in injury and data analysis.
Data taken from Premier Injuries on Saturday (20 August) shows that Liverpool currently have 10 players sidelined through injury.
Per iNews in July, the 2022-23 campaign is the Reds’ second in partnership with Zone7, an artificial intelligence platform that provides insights into performance and injury risk.
Dinnery speculates that Jurgen Klopp’s backroom team may have made a “short-term sacrifice for long-term gain” by “dialling up” the system’s sensitivity.
“People are always going to look for reasons why Liverpool are yet to win in this Premier League season,” he told Football Insider’s Adam Williams.
“Of the 10 injuries, you can probably write off three, maybe even four. Kelleher and Jota picked up their injuries playing for the national team. Calvin Ramey’s issue was picked up from his medical before he’d signed.
“The fourth one, which might explain why we may see a spike in the incidence of low-end injuries, is the Roberto Firmino one.
“Since the introduction of Zone7 technology, an AI platform used by the backroom staff to optimise performance and flag up risks in terms of setbacks, I’ve looked at the data.
“At this stage in the season, there are very few players in what we might call the ‘red zone’. But strategies for the season will have been drawn up way before the start of the pre-season programme.
“Liverpool will have a good understanding of their load and where they want their players to be at various points in the season. Within that, it’s possible that Zone7 may have a structure and programme in place that will be tailored to players.
“If Zone7 has the function to dial up or dial down, that may mean it can become more sensitive to certain metrics. Firmino’s injury lends itself to Zone7 maybe looking to protect those players.
“It looks bad from the outside looking in but the truth is they are short-term issues. If you pull Firmino out, he misses one game and then he’s back for United. That is better than him spending four to six weeks on the sidelines.
“It’s a short-term sacrifice for long-term gain.”
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