One of the multiple players who Liverpool signed last summer has admitted that he’s found his first season at Anfield ‘hard’ at times.
An unprecedented £446m trolley dash by the Reds began with the £29.5m acquisition of Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen only a few days after Arne Slot’s side were presented with the Premier League trophy in May.
The 25-year-old’s debut campaign on Merseyside has unfortunately been interrupted by three separate hamstring injuries which have ruled him out of 19 matches for the club across all competitions, much to his frustration.
In an interview with The Telegraph, Liverpool’s number 30 admitted that coping with recurring injury problems has been mentally challenging and would’ve been even harder if it weren’t for the support of his girlfriend and family.
Frimpong reflected: “I’ve been faced with a lot of injuries. Normally I don’t get injured. The only time I had a layoff before was for a surgery after a bad tackle. There was nothing I could do about that, but for it to happen to myself? Hamstrings?
“It’s never happened in my career. I’ve had three injuries and, on top of that, the team is not doing so well, like we should do. There have been a lot of challenges. If we could have won one of the FA Cup or the Champions League, it wouldn’t have been as bad.
“How have I dealt with it? I’ve got my family; my girlfriend. You have to understand we are human. We’ve got feelings as well. When bad things happen, we think about it. The moment you go home, you think, ‘Oh’. You have got to do something to stay away from going into your own mind.
“You need your family and your loved ones, and that is what has got me through the difficult times this season. I’m not going to lie; it’s been hard, but when I was down, I had people with me who made me be with them. They distract me, so I’m not just there sitting around looking at nothing.”
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Aside from the all too frequent injury issues, Frimpong’s form on the pitch has been condemned by Gabby Agbonlahor, who remarked that the Liverpool right-back hasn’t been good from either a defensive or attacking point of view.
We’d argue that the criticism from the ex-Aston Villa striker is harsh, with the Netherlands international often providing a threat along the right flank with his propensity to get forward, which has been praised in some quarters.
At the time of the 25-year-old’s transfer from Leverkusen, the Reds were riding the crest of a wave after winning the Premier League and seemed well-placed to go on and enjoy a prolonged period of either lifting or competing for major silverware.
Unfortunately, this season has been one of rapid decline for Liverpool, whose cause hasn’t been helped by a multitude of injury problems to players like Frimpong, Alisson Becker, Alexander Isak, Conor Bradley and now Hugo Ekitike.
Hopefully the 2026/27 campaign will be much kinder to the Dutch right-back on an individual and collective level.
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