John Aldridge reflects on Liverpool losing players to injury in the international break and the return of Julian Ward in the second half of his weekly column
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Liverpool have been unfortunate to see Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo both pick up injuries during the international break. It just goes with the territory over the last couple of years.
We've had so many bad injuries, and to key players too. Let's just hope that it's a trivial injury. Hopefully Isak’s just felt a twinge. And hopefully Gakpo avoided anything serious, though it’s a heavy tackle. A bad tackle too.
We don’t play for another two weeks, against Man City. They’re a proper team. To win it, you want and need your best players out there so hopefully they’re okay.
If they’re not available, we’re thin on the ground. Young Koumas, we all really like him. But if he got thrown in for a game of that magnitude, it would be tough. Really tough.
What Alisson Becker has been doing in international break as Liverpool future remains uncertain
You want your experienced players, but who else could play up there? Barcola maybe? Or Florian Wirtz.
It would be a tough dilemma for Andoni Iraola if Isak and Gakpo were both unavailable. Fingers crossed it’s not one he has to face.
Busy time for Julian Ward
It was great to see Andoni Iraola as a fan at Anfield on Sunday, cheering on Liverpool women in the Merseyside derby against Everton.
He was there with Julian Ward. It’s early days but Iraola seems to have really bought into the club and the city and is settling in well.
It’s nice to see him there. He lives in the area, what else are you going to do in the international break? Politically, he’s done the right thing.
It’s a great move from him to be there, especially considering some of the grumbles about Arne Slot in his time at the club, so fair play to Andoni.
I was also pleased to see Julian Ward reappointed as Liverpool sporting director. He's been at the club before. Going by last year’s transfers, it's not been great. It was inevitable that Richard Hughes was going to leave.
We've just got to look to the future and not look back. At the moment, we've got round pegs in square holes. So what the manager wants, Julian's got to comply and try and get the players.
We've got the backing and we do things right. The money that comes in, we spend. In January, maybe it’s possible that they’ll look to strengthen.
I don't know how much money he'll have to spend. But I think we have to solidify in January, with one, possibly two new players, if they can. And then the manager's got to start building his own team to match his own tactics.
There’s new contracts to sort too. Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker are out of contract at the end of the season, Alexis Mac Allister wants a new deal, Rio Ngumoha needs to be tied down too.
It’s going to be a busy time for Julian. But I’m sure it’s all in hand. The only thing I want is to not do what we’ve done in the past and let contracts run down to the last year.
I’m old school, I’m a dinosaur. If you let them run out to the last year, the player and the agents are in the driving seat. You risk them going for nothing and getting huge amounts of money.
And if the club’s not in their heart, then they will. If it’s not in their blood, they will. It means nothing to them to go to Saudi or whatever on a free.
Thank you for support at John Aldridge Charity Golf Classic
We held the John Aldridge Charity Golf Classic in Portugal earlier this month and we raised around €25,000. I’d just like to thank everyone that helped and showed their support.
We had nearly 100 players, and quite a lot came from the Liverpool area. And loads of other places too - Ireland, London, Scotland.
So I just want to say thank you very much to everyone. And, to the club too. They helped me out with a couple of auction items and things like that.
Most of what we raise goes to children over there so it was all for a great cause and it really means a lot.
It’s the 23rd year we’ve held it. So to anyone who attended, wherever you’re from, and to everyone who helped or showed their support, or who donated in the auction, from the bottom of my heart I just want to say the biggest of thank yous.
It means a lot and you’re helping make a difference.