Exposed - The Rodger's Injury Legacy
Yesterday I highlighted the chronic cumulative impact of injury on this Celtic squad – Celtic Count the Cost of Success. I outlined some of the possible reasons for that.
One which I did not highlight because I had no knowledge to back it up, is the impact of the levels and intensity of training under Rodgers.
But using data provided by Physioroom.com we can assess his Liverpool team from 2012-2016 to see whether there is a similar pattern at his previous club.
Liverpool Injury Profile
Physioroom track total number of days lost to injury whilst I tracked number of matches lost.
Rodgers joined Liverpool for the start of the 2012/13 season and left in October 2015, replaced with Klopp.
Here is the trend of Total Days Lost to Injury over the seasons since 2012.
At the end of Rodgers first season at Liverpool, the club had the 6th lowest Total Days Lost to Injury in the EPL.
In his final season in charge, Liverpool ranked 19th (out of 20) for Total Days Lost to Injury – that is, the 2nd highest days lost.
The injury situation improved in the following two seasons under Klopp. Liverpool finished the 2017/18 season with the 14th worst injury record, an improvement of five places post Rodgers.
EPL Injury Rankings
Comparing Liverpool to the other EPL sides in terms of Total Days Lost to Injury and Total Number of Injuries, here is how Liverpool rank.
From one of the lowest injury rates in the EPL in 2012/13, by the time Rodgers left, Liverpool had the 2nd highest volume, and number of days lost, to injury.
The number of days lost rose from 860 in 2012/13 to 1862 in 2015/16.
The number of injury events rose from 17 in 2012/13 to 35 in 2015/16.
Since Klopp took over, Liverpool saw the number of days lost to injury fall to 1840 in 2016/17 and down dramatically to 1368 in 2017/18. Last season’s data is not yet available.
The number of injury events fell in 2016/17 from 35 to 32. But then in 2017/18 Liverpool had more injury events than any other EPL team albeit the total number of days lost fell – many smaller injuries it would seem.
Bear in mind Klopp is a proponent of a high energy pressing game and also an advocate of the importance of using emotion as a motivator. In other words, he implements an exhausting style of football!
The more than doubling of injuries under Rodgers is consistent with the trend witnessed at Celtic where the increase in matches lost to injury from Deila’s first season to 2018/19 was over 100%.
Summary
I do not know what specific techniques or methods were used to arrive at this result. Or whether it was just bad luck. The latter is unlikely given the trending evidence.
The circumstantial evidence is that under Rodgers, both Liverpool and the Celtic saw significant increases in injury rates across their squads. A high pressing style is a common tactical approach from many sides in the modern era. This suggests, therefore, that training methods had a part to play in this trend.
At Liverpool, the total number of days lost to injury has been trending down under the new manager Klopp.
The other factors I listed yesterday would all have played a part also – these issues are complex and there is never one single factor.
I can monitor this going forward by 1) assessing injury trends under Lennon and 2) assessing injury trends for Leicester City under Rodgers.