The global group will shortly reconvene at the AXA Training Centre. Over the last ten days, Liverpool’s team has seemingly visited every country in the world, returning from St George’s Park to Greece, Paris to Portugal, and so on.
Jurgen Klopp, like any Premier League manager, is unlikely to be very excited about some of his players flying thousands of miles and having to acclimate to different time zones and weather during the international break. And when the Premier League season resumes at 12.30 BST, the Reds boss will probably be annoyed that his team is playing again.
Liverpool will kick off at midday following an international break for the thirteenth occasion in Klopp’s eight-year tenure at Anfield. When they play Manchester City the following month, it will be 14.
A match at home provides a small comfort. However, Klopp must get the Reds ready for the Merseyside derby against Everton, which promises to be a really intense and high-stakes match.
Even if the fixture is overly simplistic, form does indeed suffer in this instance. Given that Everton has only triumphed twice at Anfield since 1999, it is hardly surprising that Liverpool is the clear favorite according to bookmakers.
Each player needs to be at the top of their game. Even though Sean Dyche’s team is now 16th in the standings and has only won two games in the top flight, they will still be a physical threat and have a lot of counterattack power.
When Klopp decides on his starting lineup, he will take into account the number of minutes each of his players has played for their home nations as well as the venues and times of previous games.
Additionally, Liverpool’s 3-1 victory against Wolves last month—which also occurred after the international break—will be on Klopp’s mind.
When Alexis Mac Allister was named in the starting lineup at Molineux on that particular occasion, it was a little surprising. Even though the Brighton summer signing had only played for Argentina in the wee hours of Wednesday morning UK time, he was on the field from the start and only played for forty-five minutes.
In the first half, Mac Allister was given an early booking and lost possession multiple times. At the half, Liverpool was trailing by a goal, and the 24-year-old was by no means the only player who didn’t perform well. However, he did not return for the second half, and Klopp acknowledged that Mac Allister was not upset about the choice.
“The good thing about the first half was that it was so bad that I didn’t think we could play the second half like that,” the Liverpool manager stated during his post-match press conference. You can see that, although we obviously wanted to start quite differently, the boys were unable to make it work for whatever reason.
Macca and a few others had low energy levels, and it was evident that they were struggling. Since we were unable to make five changes before halftime, we decided to switch up the players and the system to give ourselves a little more natural speed up front. Although he had a few strong moments in the first half, he was relieved to come off.
After forcing his way into the starting lineup during Argentina’s World Cup victory in Qatar last year, Mac Allister has continued to be an important member of the team during the most recent round of international matches. He participated in all of the matches against Peru and Paraguay.
The midfield options available to Klopp will be limited when Liverpool plays Everton. While Thiago Alcantara and Stefan Bajcetic are both questionable and unlikely to be ready to play even if available due to their respective significant injury histories, Curtis Jones is required to serve the second of a three-match suspension.
Wataru Endo, Harvey Elliott, Ryan Gravenberch, and Dominik Szoboszlai are all sure to make an appearance. However, Mac Allister might have to make do with starting the Premier League season as a reserve for the first time in his Liverpool career.
