Walk, Don't Run: Liverpool's Physical Evolution from Klopp to Slot

The link between injuries and points was clear for Liverpool throughout Jürgen Klopp's tenure. How have things changed under Arne Slot?

Jonathan Northcroft recently wrote an excellent article for The Times titled ‘How Liverpool knew Arne Slot was the right man for them’. If they didn’t know when he was appointed, they certainly do now.

Among various tidbits of information, there were two - likely related - which stood out. The first was Slot’s track record for keeping players fit:

“He achieved 90 per cent player availability in every season at Feyenoord and the bad news for title rivals is his teams’ record of improving in the second half of campaigns.”

This is excellent news. Having tracked the Reds’ rate of absenteeism for almost nine years, it has long been clear that their performance level tracks closely with how many players have been unavailable. This was hardly a revelatory discovery but it never seems to be talked about in any detail whenever teams have below par seasons. Mikel Arteta is doing his best to turn this particular tide, in fairness, with a narrative-hungry media keen to help him.

Liverpool’s Premier League title challenge fell away sharply in Jürgen Klopp’s final months; when you look at the above chart, it’s remarkable they topped the table in the first week of April in the first place. The Reds were faced with a level of injuries not seen since 2020/21, a season for much of which midfielders or lower league centre-backs had to man the heart of the defence.

It is encouraging as we enter the second half of 2024/25 that Slot has a strong record of keeping his squad healthy. How does he do this? A chart from Northcroft’s article probably explains why the Dutchman has a better record than his Liverpool predecessor.

This makes as much sense as the apparent link between injury rates and points. If you don’t run as far and do so at high speed less frequently, the chance of a fitness problem will be lower. “Beat the dross, win the league” is a phrase which sums up that the title winner probably had a near-perfect record against the bottom half of the table. Perhaps Slot can prove that “run less, win the league” has merit too.

Sprinting has been on the increase in the Premier League in recent years. Despite what the graphic suggests about high-speed runs, Liverpool’s data from 2024/25 implies they might be sprinting more now.