“They get paid enough and should get on with it,” is a common response, sympathy and empathy in short supply after another lacklustre performance demands ever imaginative and more profound reasons for a dip in form. In Van Dijk’s case, there have been plenty of elaborate explanations offered, the accusation he was ‘saving himself for the World Cup’ earlier in the season the most frequent.
Sometimes the obvious answer is correct. Van Dijk clearly played too much football upon his return from a complicated knee injury, his influence on the Liverpool team such that there was no time to rest. And as he admits today, he would not have taken kindly to being left out.
That is another fundamental problem for those managers who foresee injury risks but are managing stars who only understand the reasoning for squad rotation in retrospect, often when it is too late as they recover from injury.
Even now, it is extraordinary how often we see top-level strikers unhappy at being subbed with their side comfortably ahead with 20 minutes to go, failing to appreciate how protecting their limbs for the following week is more important than adding to their goal tally in a game already won.
Go back two decades and it is staggering to recall how often a manager ‘tinkering’ with his line-up was a news story as key players took the huff at squad rotation policies. Read any interview with Michael Owen today and he freely admits his peak was before his first hamstring tear, his powers curtailed because he played too much football between the ages of 17-21. The same could be said of Robbie Fowler before his cruciate knee injury in 1998. But their teenage self hated missing any games and would question the manager’s reasoning.
Van Dijk is hardly alone in being over-exerted, especially at Liverpool, and has undoubtedly contributed to this erratic campaign. When the story of this Premier League season is written, it cannot be ignored how Arsenal had a full summer to energise and sprint out of the traps. The same can be said of Newcastle United. Those squads best equipped with conditioning time available to play a high intensity game every week have excelled, while those who have been doing so year upon year – even Manchester City – have not hit the same standard every week.
Van Dijk’s comments do not change the fact Liverpool must make squad changes at the end of this season, nor dilute the reality that having had access to the data the club should have been more prepared for the rigours of previous seasons taking their toll.
But they also hint at why Klopp is sure those senior players who survive his cull will look reinvigorated in a year’s time. To him, they do not need to be replaced. They just need a summer rest.
