It was a rare subdued week of action for Liverpool’s loaned men, with a number of Jurgen Klopp’s Reds frustrated in their search for match minutes.
Two of those to play this weekend were Adam Bogdan and Ryan Kent, who both featured in a battle of the loanees as Wigan Athletic travelled to Barnsley on Saturday.
But the Anfield pair had to settle for a share of the spoils as a goalless draw played out at Oakwell.
It was a quiet afternoon for Bogdan, who was rarely called into action, but there was a moment of real concern as the Hungarian pulled up with a knee injury when clearing the ball, forcing him to be stretchered off on the hour mark.
The severity of the injury is not yet known, but hopefully it is nothing serious for the 29-year-old, who has enjoyed a decent loan spell so far at the DW Stadium.
Meanwhile Kent, who started in a left-wing role for the home side, endured a quiet afternoon as he struggled to fully impose himself on proceedings, with this ultimately culminating in his withdrawal after 75 minutes for Reds academy product Adam Hammill.
Also in the second tier, Danny Ward continued as Huddersfield’s No. 1, but the Welshman couldn’t prevent his side falling to a 3-2 defeat against Cardiff City.
The Wales international has been in excellent form this season but he didn’t enjoy his best afternoon on home soil—despite making one smart stop early on and even though he was not directly at fault for any goal conceded.
However, Ward clearly felt aggrieved about the first, protesting to the referee after feeling he was fouled at a corner, and he may feel he could have done better with the second—palming a shot straight to Cardiff’s Junior Hoilett, who scored the rebound.
Overall, it was a tough and unrewarding week for the Reds’ Football League loanees.
Ryan Fulton, somewhat harshly, paid the price for Chesterfield’s League One struggles, with the young shot-stopper dropped from their starting lineup for the first time this season.
The Scotland U21 ‘keeper conceded four goals as Chesterfield were hammered 4-1 at Sheffield United last weekend, and this saw manager Danny Wilson relegate Fulton to the bench and hand a Football League debut to academy product Lloyd Allinson against Fleetwood Town.
It was a move that didn’t pay off though, as the Spireites went down 2-1 to the Cod Army with Fulton watching on, showing Wilson that Chesterfield’s current struggles go beyond the man between the posts.
Lloyd Jones suffered a nightmare week as Swindon Town slumped to two big defeats—with the Robins enduring FA Cup embarrassment as they lost 3-1 to non-league Eastleigh in the first of those.
Jones started the first-round replay at centre-back and completed the full game, but he had a dire evening against Eastleigh’s physical front line, playing a part in poor defending for the first goal as he missed an important tackle which allowed Jai Reason to skip past him and fire home.
And the 20-year-old endured a similarly disappointing afternoon on Saturday, featuring from the start and playing all 90 minutes of Swindon’s 4-0 loss to Rochdale in League One.
Playing the full match was about the only positive as Jones struggled again–producing some poor defending for the second goal conceded, before gifting his opponent a free header from close range and failing to react to the rebound for the third.
Meanwhile in League Two, Jack Dunn was an unused substitute in Morecambe’s 2-0 loss to Luton Town.
There was frustration all round this week for the Liverpool’s European-based loaned men.
Andre Wisdom was the only player to feature, but that was as a time-wasting substitution in the sixth minute of stoppage time as Red Bull Salzburg saw out a 2-1 win over Rapid Vienna on Sunday.
There was no action for Lazar Markovic at Sporting CP, with the Serbian missing their cup victory over Praiense in midweek due to international activity, but he will hope to return to involvement for their must-win Champions League tie with Real Madrid on Tuesday.
Meanwhile in Germany, Allan Rodrigues was an unused substitute in Hertha Berlin’s 1-1 Bundesliga draw with Augsburg, and Taiwo Awoniyi’s run of starts at NEC Nijmegen came to end on Sunday afternoon, with the Nigerian also unused in his side’s 5-0 loss at Ajax.
And finally, Jon Flanagan could feature in Premier League action for Burnley against West Bromwich Albion on Monday night, which can be seen live on Sky Sports 1, with kick-off at 8pm.
Liverpool’s Loanees This Week
- Markovic – Sporting – Not in matchday squad
- Wisdom – Red Bull Salzburg – Played 1 min vs. Rapid Vienna
- Ward – Huddersfield – Played 90 mins vs. Cardiff
- Kent – Barnsley – Played 75 mins vs. Wigan
- Bogdan – Wigan – Played 60 mins vs. Barnsley
- Jones – Swindon – Played 90 mins vs. Eastleigh & Rochdale
- Hart – Port Vale – Injured
- Fulton – Chesterfield – Unused substitute vs. Fleetwood
- Dunn – Morecambe – Unused substitute vs. Luton
- Allan – Hertha Berlin – Unused substitute vs. Augsburg
- Awoniyi – NEC Nijmegen – Unused substitute vs. Ajax
Injuries
Sam Hart was out of action for Port Vale this week, with the youngster left out of his side’s 2-0 loss to Charlton Athletic due to injury sustained last weekend.
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