Liverpool’s injury list has become so overloaded that you could almost field a title-contending team from the players who are currently unavailable to Jurgen Klopp.
Alisson Becker, Mo Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Thiago Alcantara and Curtis Jones are all among the casualties at present, yet there’s still one other name who one pundit has dubbed ‘the biggest loss’ out of everyone at Anfield.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, former Aston Villa and West Ham midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker said: “I need to ask Mark [Ogden] and the Professor [Nedum Onuoha] in their opinion who they feel is the biggest loss out of those three.
“I believe that Jota is the biggest loss for me. I think he’s next to Salah as Liverpool’s most clinical striker, and all the things that he does in the attacking sense is so important to Liverpool.
“When you take a look at this run now, we know now this is the serious business of the Premier League title race. This is when you need to be firing on all cylinders, so I think Jota is the biggest loss.”
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When Liverpool were deprived of Salah – who’ll miss the clash against Luton on Wednesday night due to the recurrence of a hamstring issue – during the first few weeks of 2024, Jota ensured that the Egyptian talisman wouldn’t be overly missed, scoring five goals in that period for the Reds (Transfermarkt).
Unfortunately, our sharp-shooting number 20 now faces a reported two months out injured after a clash with Christian Norgaard in the win over Brentford on Saturday, a hammer blow which cast a big shadow over the satisfaction of the 4-1 result.
Jurgen Klopp will now be looking to the 27-year-old’s fellow attackers to step up and fill the void in the same way that the Portuguese attacker did during Salah’s spell on the sidelines.
Jota has indeed been remarkably clinical for Liverpool, ranking as our second-highest scorer so far this season despite playing the fewest minutes of our five senior forwards (Transfermarkt), and goals such as his stoppage time winner against Tottenham last April illustrate his ability to come up clutch when his team need it the most.
It was largely because of him that we came through the Egyptian King’s absence still top of the Premier League. Now it’s over to his teammates to return the favour throughout the next couple of months and minimise the blow of losing the ex-Wolves dynamo.