When Key Defenders Fall: How Liverpool Has Weathered Injury Blows Through the Years

Liverpool have been hit again by injury misfortune. Ibrahima Konaté has been ruled out of France duty after a thigh issue sustained during Liverpool’s recent outing, compounding already mounting defensive concerns. With Alisson Becker and Giovanni Leoni also unavailable, observers are bracing for how Klopp (or his successor) will reshuffle the backline.

According to new sports betting sites UK, Liverpool remain favourites ahead of their clash with Manchester United, with several bookmakers placing the Reds at 8/13 to take all three points. These platforms offer tools to monitor live odds shifts and compare bookmaking margins in real time. Still, Konaté’s absence introduces uncertainty into markets tied to clean sheets and defensive solidity. We’ll see how those odds evolve, but more intriguing is how this club has managed injury crises in the past.

Liverpool’s history is littered with moments when critical players were sidelined, and the club often responded with resilience, tactical adaptations, and reliance on depth.

During the 2020–21 season, for example, Liverpool lost Virgil van Dijk to a devastating ACL injury in October, which removed their defensive keystone. In the same campaign, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez also missed large stretches. Klopp responded by redeploying midfielders like Fabinho and Henderson into central defence roles, and leaned heavily on youth options and rotation. Even under those constraints, Liverpool maintained form and secured top‑four status.

Earlier, in the 2017–18 campaign, Alex Oxlade‑Chamberlain suffered a serious knee injury in the Champions League semi‑final, which ruled him out for months. The squad adapted by shifting to more compact systems, rebalancing player roles, and pushing others like Wijnaldum, Milner, and Lallana to shoulder additional minutes.

The 2023–24 season also saw Liverpool reduced to as many as nine absentees in the first team, including Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Salah, Szoboszlai, forcing Klopp to dig into the academy, rotate aggressively, and adjust squad strategies. Their capacity to sustain competitiveness, even through such periods, underscores the club’s institutional strength and tactical flexibility.

Liverpool has also shifted training, recovery, and rotation strategies in response. In recent seasons, the club managed to reduce injury absences by 64.3% compared to the 2023–24 campaign, thanks in part to more individualized fitness regimes, smarter rotation, and improved medical oversight.

These responses show a pattern: when key defenders or attackers are lost, Liverpool has often used internal adjustments, widened rotation, and positional creativity rather than wholesale tactical overhaul. The upcoming weeks will test whether that same blueprint holds true again, especially with Konaté, Alisson, and Leoni sidelined.