Peter Krawietz hinted that Liverpool have called a loan player back to tackle the ‘difficult situation’
Speaking in an interview, as quoted by Liverpool Echo, Liverpool assistant manager Peter Krawietz has suggested that the club has called back a player from his loan spell to help them tackle the Covid crisis at the club.
Liverpool suffered a Coronavirus surge midway in December. However, the club managed to tackle the situation because of solid depth. Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Curtis Jones and Thiago Alcantara fell prey to the Coronavirus during that stint. Even though three of those players returned to the squad, things haven’t gotten better overall for the club.
Joel Matip, Alisson Becker and Roberto Firmino tested positive one week back and had to be sidelined. Liverpool assistant manager Peter Krawietz revealed that the Cameroon centre-back has returned to the field, but the other two players remained sidelined.
Liverpool were already without Takumi Minamino, Divock Origi, Nat Phillips and Harvey Elliott through injury. On top of that, Naby Keita, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah have left the squad to join their respective national team for the coming African Cup of Nations tournament.
It’s evident that Liverpool currently have a lot of problems with the depth. Therefore, new reinforcements are required, and according to Peter Krawietz, the Reds board have already initiated the process of bolstering their options.
The Liverpool assistant manager suggested that the Reds have recently called back one player from a loan spell. Even though Peter Krawietz didn’t specify the name, he revealed that the player could join the squad today.
“We have one loan player back. He will probably join the squad tomorrow. We are searching for options for this game nearly everywhere. We found enough players to build a team.”
When asked about the approach in the January transfer window, the Liverpool assistant manager hinted that the Covid situation could affect the Reds’ strategy for the transfer window.
“This is a long term decision; we take the situation as it is. So we knew about the AFCON situation for a few months. Hopefully, they are successful. Covid is like it is; if it’s necessary to react, we will discuss that. A club decision.”
The injury and Coronavirus issue has created a void in the Liverpool squad. The Reds suffered a setback against Chelsea where they surrendered a two-goal lead. Therefore, we are not really a solid title contender anymore.
More Liverpool News
- Transfer News: Liverpool striker Divock Origi prefers Premier League move despite interest from Italy
- Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders tests positive for Coronavirus
- Transfer News: Liverpool ae readying their first bid for Villarreal star Arnaut Danjuma
However, the absentees could further hurt Liverpool’s performances in the coming domestic and European ties. Therefore, finding and recruiting quality backups for the short-term crisis should be the priority for the Reds board.
It feels like a deja-vu when we consider where we were this time last year. We did not react well in the January window of 2021 but luck and grit from our youth players carried us over the line for a third-place finish. This time, let’s hope it doesn’t have to come down to that.
