Adam Lallana injury could be fatal for Liverpool - but Jurgen Klopp can't complain

The last thing Liverpool needed to hear at the end of the international week was that Adam Lallana has picked up an injury which could be a decisive factor in their challenge for the top four. If he does miss a whole month then it could be just as significant as the absence of Sadio Mane during the Africa Cup of Nations - which effectively ended their title challengr.

The instinct will be to lash out and find someone responsible, but I don't think England can be blamed. If Lallana is really feeling an injury then at the end of the day it is down to him to let the medical staff know. But he wants to play for his country. He doesn’t want to come out and say he is injured as he wants to play as many minutes as possible on the international stage.

Who wouldn’t want to start away to Germany in Dortmund? And then it’s a home qualifier at Wembley against Lithuania. Of course he is going to want to play. Club managers tend to get annoyed when the lose a player in such circumstances, but sometimes injuries just happen.

Footage has emerged of Lallana appearing to clutch his thigh as he walks back in for half-time against Lithuania but how many players walk into the dressing room feeling something? It happens all the time. Sometimes it’s tiredness, sometimes it’s even done unconsciously. It doesn’t mean England made a mistake by putting him out for the second half.

If Jurgen Klopp would have had a chance to represent Germany during his playing career, I’m sure he would have jumped at the chance. And even in his previous role as Dortmund manager, he wouldn’t have moaned at the German federation if he lost a player in such circumstances as the whole German league is engineered to benefit the national side.

In Germany, the league is structured to help the international set-up while in England we have two separate bodies, in the Premier League and FA Cup, who have competing aims and struggle to find common ground. That’s what allows club v country rows to fester: that fundamental split.

In truth, the fact England used Lallana from the start of both games is in fact testament to the work Klopp has done with the player. Lallana has been reinvented at Liverpool and England are getting the benefit.

He is one of the few England players who plays with a bit of improvisation; when he gets the ball you don’t know what he is going to do next. He has a good idea but to other players he is unreadable. He can get up and down the pitch, close down, make tackles, make and score goals.

Gareth Southgate wants his best players on the pitch and Lallana is certainly one of those. You can rest a player like John Stones, and even Raheem Sterling, but England don’t have another Lallana. You could see it as favouritsim towards Manchester City to give those players a rest against Germany, but ultimately they are not as important to England as Lallana is right now.

He is also a crucial player for Liverpool and to be without him for the weekend’s Merseyside derby, and for up to four weeks in total, could be just as bad for Liverpool as losing Mane for the Africa Cup of Nations turned out to be, when Liverpool won one of eight games in all competitions. Maybe it's even more serious.

Lallana is one of those players who you really miss when they are gone, both for what he does with the ball and without it too. Klopp’s big problem is that he doesn’t have enough players who can fulfil both sides of the game in that way – not like he did at Dortmund – and Lallana is a huge asset in that respect.

It could be a fatal blow in their top-four hopes. Liverpool are four points ahead of United and six ahead of Arsenal in fourth, but those two clubs have two games in hand, and Liverpool do have a tendency to fail when it really matters. They give away goals and they aren’t very good when they are in front.

The only guarantees are that Chelsea will win the league and Tottenham will qualify for the Champions League; beyond that no one really knows. One thing is certain though: not having Lallana for a month poses huge questions of Liverpool.