John Flanagan has no Importance at Liverpool

John Flanagan has become the forgotten men at Liverpool after spending almost 2 years on the sidelines due to a long-term injury.

The defender did not play for 19 months due to a knee injury. He recently made his competitive return in the 3-0 win over Exeter City in January. Since then, he has featured in six matches across all competitions. However, his absence from the Europa League has been surprising given that Liverpool have just progressed to the last 16 round of the competition. Manager Jurgen Klopp says that he is left impressed by the 23-year-old, but says that Liverpool have to be cautious with the player.

He has been given enough time to recover from the games by deliberately being omitted from the Europa League competitions. The German will be aware that Liverpool fans will be able to see the best of the 23-year-old only from next season. The next few months will just be utilised as a settling in period for the defender. Before his major injury, Flanagan was keeping out experienced defender Glen Johnson from the right back spot. Many doubted about his ability to return to the Liverpool first-team especially after the managerial change, but Klopp is providing him with plenty of opportunities to prove himself.

“Of course, in the past it was a difficult situation for Flano because of injury, but now it’s a good moment and life can go on.The sun shines again. It’s a really good moment for him, very important, and now he can start getting fit because before he was not at 100 per cent. That’s completely normal when you have been injured. He was out for too long, but lately from the pre-season on, he’s been like his old self, what he was before his injury,” said Klopp.