OPINION
There has been much confusion on Merseyside of late surrounding summer signing Xherdan Shaqiri. The playmaker, after a terrific start to life at Anfield, has been mysteriously ignored by manager Jurgen Klopp in recent times.
However, the Liverpool boss clarified the situation on Tuesday: “[Shaqiri is] good, much better,” he told the club’s official website. “Shaq, since a couple of weeks [ago], has had some problems with the groin.
“He trained, not how he could train, but was still in the squad and all that stuff because we didn’t have a lot of options. Now he feels better day by day and should be fine for the weekend.”
There will undoubtedly have been some concern when the 27-year-old pulled out of the Switzerland squad last week, but it appears that the extra time undergoing treatment on Merseyside has been beneficial for him.
It’s clear that it was injury problems, not tactics or a loss of form, that was the reason for Shaqiri’s limited game time over the past few months.
For much of the new year the Reds have struggled to find creativity from their midfield, something which Shaqiri is ideally placed to provide. It was worrying, then, to see him seemingly ignored by Klopp. Now we know the reason why, though, and his return to fitness could be crucial for the team down the stretch this season.
Adam Lallana has played a fair bit of Premier League football recently, tasked with providing the cutting edge that the team had been missing. But, while the Englishman has performed fairly well, Shaqiri showed at the start of this campaign that he is on another level.
If he manages to get back to full speed in short order then the Swiss star could be massively influential in the deciding months of the season.
Indeed, having the former Stoke City man, on a reported £80,000-per-week [Source: Spotrac], back to his best could turn out to be pivotal for Liverpool’s Premier League title push.
