After weeks of having only the bare bones of a squad to work with, the cavalry is finally starting to arrive for Arne Slot.
the Liverpool head coach confirmed on Thursday that three first-team stars are set to link up with the Reds during their pre-season tour of the United States.
Ibrahima Konate and Ryan Gravenberch, who didn't play a minute at the European Championship for France and the Netherlands respectively, will report back for duty in Philadelphia next week.
However, Liverpool's attacking ranks have already been bolstered by the arrival of Diogo Jota ahead of the Reds' clash with Real Betis at the Acrisure Stadium
Jota
“It’s great to be back with the team,"
"Now I’ll get some rest and get ready to start working tomorrow.
"I’ll try to catch up (fitness-wise) with the team, do my physical work first to be ready to start doing my tactical work to get ready for the new season."
It has been a frustrating summer for Jota, who was reduced to a role off the bench in three of Portugal's five games at Euro 2024
It follows another stop-start domestic campaign marred by injury
Despite being sidelined for two fairly lengthy spells in 2023/24, Jota still managed to post a respectable return of 15 goals in all competitions for the Reds.
Of course, Jota's unfortunate propensity for picking up knocks is not a new phenomenon.
Since arriving at Anfield in a £41m move from Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 2020, the forward has missed a combined 335 days due to injury,
Having earned a reputation as the Reds' most potent finisher, it is hard not to feel as if Jota's lack of physical fortitude stymied Liverpool at times as they sought regularly to compete on four fronts under Jurgen Klopp.
Klopp himself spoke at length about his striker's injury misfortune earlier this year, acknowledging how his regular absences have negatively impacted his output during his time on Merseyside.
Klopp
"He just has it. He’s a complete package," Klopp said back in February
"With, and he knows that, everyone knows that, with a few injuries at the wrong time – a few too many as well, like unlucky, wow.
“Diogo gets, in each game, knocks like crazy. If I go through the lists of medical reports I got over the years since Diogo is here, he’s in each and every one of them.
“ And not as ‘injured’, just as ‘has a bruise’, ‘has a knock’, ‘has that’, ‘has that’.All after each game.
“So he really gets it. And on top of that, a couple of times he was out for absolutely too long, otherwise his numbers would look completely different."
Of course, nobody will be more frustrated with Jota's troubling injury record than the player himself
During his time at Wolves, Jota consistently demonstrated his ability to stay fit, registering a combined 143 league appearances across his four seasons
Perhaps under Slot, whose playing style is arguably not as physically taxing as Klopp's, the striker might be able to put the worst of his injury woes behind him.
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