Liverpool given encouraging Cody Gakpo injury update as potential return date mooted – report

Liverpool have reportedly been given an encouraging update on the knee injury suffered by Cody Gakpo in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat to Tottenham.

The 24-year-old was withdrawn at half-time, just minutes after netting his team’s equaliser, with Jurgen Klopp fearing that the problem could potentially be ‘a bad one’ (liverpoolfc.com).

However, reports from Netherlands on Tuesday morning have offered encouragement that the attacker won’t be sidelined for too long.

According to Algemeen Dagblad (via Sport Witness), ‘insiders’ have indicated that ‘nothing is broken’ and, following initial reports of Gakpo being ruled out for up to six weeks, that has since been downgraded to ‘at least until after the upcoming international break’.

This latest report offers some hope that the 24-year-old might be able to return for Liverpool in the Merseyside derby against Everton on 21 October, our first fixture after the upcoming internationals.

That may yet prove overly ambitious in terms of a comeback date, but the picture definitely seems brighter now than it did over the preceding 24-48 hours.

Gakpo’s injury has come at an unfortunate time for him as he’d just been coming into a rich vein of form, scoring in three of his last four appearances for the Reds since mid-September (Transfermarkt).

That body blow, allied with Diogo Jota’s suspension, leaves Jurgen Klopp short of options in attack for Sunday’s Premier League clash at Brighton beyond the expected starting trio of Mo Salah, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz – assuming none of those three pick up any injuries of their own ahead of the weekend.

If the Dutchman is to only miss Liverpool’s two matches over the coming week (plus Netherlands’ games later this month) and return for the derby, that’d absolutely be a scenario we’d take right now.

 

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PGMOL’s blunder refs Darren England and Dan Cook binned from second job after Prem axe

PGMOL’s blunder referees Darren England and Dan Cook have been dumped from a second job following their axe from the Premier League.

The pair, who were responsible for VAR during Tottenham’s fixture against Liverpool this past Saturday (September 30), were marred in controversy after failing to overturn Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal. The VAR duo decided not to overturn the decision, despite replays confirming that the winger was indeed clearly onside.

Despite the thrilling nature of the game, their actions placed them in the limelight as the PGMOL later released a statement admitting that “significant human error,” had taken place. The two referees have since been punished by being axed from the latest round of Premier League fixtures. England and Cook were scheduled to work the fixtures of Nottingham Forest vs Brentford and Fulham vs Chelsea this past weekend before they were replaced.

To add insult to injury, the pair also have no appointments on UEFA listings this week despite the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference being on. Despite the domestic controversy they’ve faced, they are still UEFA qualified officials and are able to work European games which suggests they’ve been purposely dropped.

The fallout from the fixture continues as Liverpool put out a statement promising to: “Explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.” The PGMOL are expected to release the audio of the VAR conversations that took place during the controversy as reports suggested it could lead to an overhaul of the system.

That such failings have already been categorised as “significant human error” is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency. This is vital for the reliability of future decision-making as it applies to all clubs with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again.

“In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”

Aside from requesting audio of the incident, it is unclear what other options Liverpool may be exploring.

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Lost a yard or two’: Pundit says ‘outstanding’ Liverpool player is looking so much slower now

Liverpool have started this season brightly, but it’s obvious where their deficiencies lie at the moment.

Indeed, the Reds’ defence is, quite clearly, not up to scratch at the moment, and, as you can imagine, fingers are firmly being pointed at Virgil van Dijk.

The Dutch defender has, for so long, been Liverpool’s key man at the back, but now, his powers are, quite clearly, waning.

Speaking on his podcast, Eamon Dunphy has been discussing Van Dijk’s performances as of late, and he says that the £75m man has gotten a lot slower since his knee injury back in 2020 that cost him almost a year of his career.

Dunphy gave his verdict on the defender’s lost pace.

“Van Dijk has lost a yard or two of pace. Van Dijk did transform Liverpool in many ways, and has been an outstanding central defender, but he has this tendency to put his hand up and play for offside, even when he did have the pace. But he had a bad knee injury and that is sometimes the end of you, even now it has taken a yard or two of pace off him,” Dunphy said.

The reality is that Van Dijk has gotten slower as of late, but can anyone really say that they are surprised?

The Dutchman is 32 years old now, he’s no spring chicken these days, and at that age you’re bound to start losing a bit of pace, even without a potentially career-ending knee injury thrown into the mix.

Van Dijk is still quick, don’t get us wrong, but he’s not as fast as he used to be, and that does cost Liverpool at times when they try to play their high line.