Steve McManaman has shot back at Liverpool’s critics by making a pertinent point about the Reds this season.
Our closest pursuers Arsenal are paying the price for having most of their forwards out injured, failing to score against either West Ham or Nottignham Forest over the past week and duly dropping 13 points behind the Premier League leaders.
Meanwhile, Manchester City’s title defence has crumbled in the absence of Rodri, who’s been out since September with an ACL injury. The champions have also been without Erling Haaland in recent games, although he returned on Wednesday night to score their winner away to Tottenham Hotspur.
McManaman: Liverpool’s injury record not down to luck
Speaking on TNT Sports after Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Newcastle, McManaman insisted that the Reds’ relatively kind fortunes in comparison to last season’s top two owe much more to the work of lead physical performance coach Ruben Peeters than mere luck.
The ex-LFC winger proclaimed: “People say they’re fortunate about injuries. To a certain extent they are, but Arne Slot brought a sport scientist with him who he trusts implicitly, and he’s done a wonderful job, so it’s not luck.
“He makes five substitutes in every single game. He makes sure he rotates his team, so he knows what he’s doing. He’s helping the players out as much as he can, because the schedule is hard and arduous.”
Liverpool have had their injury problems, too!
McManaman has absolutely hit the nail on the head here – Liverpool have had to recruit smartly behind the scenes to negotiate a fixture schedule which has been particularly taxing in 2025, with five Premier League matches over the past fortnight and 16 games in all competitions since the beginning of January.
Granted, we mightn’t be as badly afflicted as either Arsenal or Man City on the injury front, but it’d be plain wrong to state that we’ve been ‘lucky’ in that regard this season.
Slot has had to manage without Federico Chiesa, Alisson Becker, Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konate, Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley and Harvey Elliott for extended periods, while Trent Alexander-Arnold has also had a brief spell in the treatment room (Transfermarkt).
Also, think back to this time last year when a patched-up Liverpool side with a smattering of academy youngsters heroically won the Carabao Cup final, only for our campaign to peter out after Easter.
The head coach would’ve been aware of that last-season decline and desperate to prevent a repeat on his watch, hence why he brought Peeters with him to Anfield.
When you’re 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League by the end of February, you’re much more than just ‘lucky’. As McManaman rightly points out, that owes a lot to Slot’s astute management of an enormously gifted squad.
