DBasia.news – Liverpool were hit by a storm of injuries at the start of the 2020-2021 season. The worst hurricane of injuries hit the team’s back line.
Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez are three players in the Liverpool defense who have been injured. After Dejan Lovren’s departure, Liverpool practically only had Joel Matip as a senior center-back.
Jurgen Klopp also played two other young men to fill the void at the back from the academy, namely Nathaniel Phillips and Rhys Williams. Given that the season is still long, it’s natural for fans to worry.
Although players like Jordan Henderson, Georginio Wijnaldum, Andrew Robertson can be a temporary solution at the heart of defense, Liverpool’s schedule is still busy and requires experienced center-backs.
Naturally, the demands to buy a new defender surfaced in January 2021 (the winter transfer market). However Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish is not worried. As long as the manager is still handled by Klopp, the fans only have to believe in him.
“I trust the manager to make the right decision – he has done well so far! Unfortunately, the transfer window is closed and we have some serious injuries and players like Thiago are also still out. But we believe in Jurgen,” Dalglish told the Liverpool Echo.
“No problem because he’s going to make the right decisions – both players at Williams and Phillips did really well when they came in for the games they played.”
“The manager has options in those two but if it is possible to get a free transfer then he might think it is the best route, but whatever he decides is the best route for Liverpool.”
Dalglish also assessed that two young Liverpool defenders Williams and Phillips performed well when Klopp trusted them to play. So they can be a solution to fill gaps in the back line due to injured players.
“It’s hard for anyone to step in, but at 19 Williams didn’t play too badly against Atalanta!” added Dalglish.
“He was there and standing, his first header cleared everyone up and made sure it was his and Nat Phillips did well in the game at Anfield too.”
“Whether they are ready in the long term remains to be seen, but Nat ended up in Germany on loan last season and is doing very well so maybe he is a little more experienced.”
“As I said, you have a few options there – they want to play. It may not be the right time for them because the next game is difficult against Leicester but Jurgen made most of his decisions right and I’m sure he will do it right too,” Dalglish.