While Jurgen Klopp is spitting feathers that a key player has once again reported back to Liverpool with an injury that is likely to rule him out for several weeks, his counterpart the short walk across Stanley Park can have no such complaints ahead of Saturday’s Merseyside derby.
Liverpool will be without the services of Adam Lallana, who was injured in England’s 2018 World Cup qualifying win over Lithuania on Monday, for the match at Anfield. A thigh complaint is expected to rule the midfielder — so integral to Klopp’s high pressing game — out for a month and is the second time Lallana has been crocked while on international duty with England this season, having picked up a groin strain during November’s 2-2 friendly with Spain.
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As England manager Gareth Soutgate sticks his mobile phone on silent to avoid having to answer calls from the incensed German, he could expect a favourable text message from a grateful Dutchman. For while Klopp must shuffle his pack — he also has a jet-lagged Brazilian duo of Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino to contend with — Ronald Koeman, save for the horrific injury to Seamus Coleman that is likely to rule him out until 2018, has no such concerns.
Ross Barkley was called up as a late replacement for Southgate’s most recent squads to face Germany and Lithuania and played precisely zero minutes. Compare that to Lallana, who played an hour of the friendly defeat to Germany last week and the full 90 in the win over Lithuania — despite reportedly complaining of his injury at half time — and it is easy to see which of the two managers is most happy.
But for joyful manager read irked player. Barkley’s latest bout of benchwarming is the seventh England game in succession he has been called up for without so much as getting his boots wet. That is 630 minutes, across three managers (Roy Hodgson, Sam Allardyce and Southgate), while watching the likes of Jake Livermore and James Ward-Prowse get their chance ahead of him. Throw in disquiet grumblings from his club manager about his own performances for Everton this season and all does not augur well for the 23-year-old midfielder.
But maybe the problem isn’t so much about ability as it is expectation. The name Barkley has been on every Evertonian’s lips since he stood out in the club’s youth teams. Tim Cahill, the Australian forward of some renown, said Barkley was the most talented footballer he had worked with.
The pressure of restoring the eight-time English champions among the country’s elite has seen many a manager fall by the wayside, let alone players. For while the Goodison Park club can historically be regarded as an English heavyweight, their recent past suggests they are more feather-fisted than knockout artist.
One of only six teams to contest every season of the Premier League since its inception in 1992/93, the club has a highest finish of fourth (2005), with three fifth-place finishes and as many sixth-place finishes to show in 25 years in England’s top flight. They were last its champions in 1987.
Romelu Lukaku’s 21 goals — including nine in the past six games — have stolen the headlines but the form of a noticeably leaner and fitter Barkley has helped spark Everton’s recent upwards trajectory.
Three points at Anfield would, temporarily at least, lift them above Manchester United into fifth place. A rested, albeit reluctantly, Barkley must show he can rise to the occasion.
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