Given the relentless schedule of the last few weeks which ended with Liverpool crashing out of the Champions League and losing the Carabao Cup final, there is an argument that the international break hasn’t come at a bad time for Arne Slot.
With nine matches remaining in the Premier League and a maximum of 16 points needed to confirm Liverpool as champion, a rest before the final stretch of the campaign isn’t the worst thing. Lots of Reds stars, though, will be away on international duty, meaning that slight break in the schedule is slightly delayed.
Those who are in UEFA Nations League action will be playing on Thursday and Sunday this week. Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch and Virgil van Dijk could all feature twice for the Netherlands against Spain, for instance.
Andy Robertson will face off with Kostas Tsimikas in Scotland against Greece in the same tournament, while Ibrahima Konate and France have Croatia. Caoimhin Kelleher’s Republic of Ireland takes on Bulgaria, Diogo Jota and Portugal have Denmark, and Dominik Szoboszlai and Hungary will face Turkey.
England (Curtis Jones and Jarell Quansah) is set to take on Albania and Latvia in World Cup qualifying while Wales (Lewis Koumas, who is enjoying a loan spell with Stoke City) will face Kazakhstan and North Macedonia.
Elsewhere in World Cup qualifying, Mohamed Salah’s Egypt has Ethiopia and Sierra Leone and Wataru Endo’s Japan is set to play Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. In South America, Brazil (Alisson Becker) has Colombia (Luis Diaz) and Argentina (Alexis Mac Allister), Colombia also has Paraguay, and Argentina also has Uruguay. Darwin Nunez and co will also take on Bolivia.
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At youth level, Harvey Elliott is with England U21s as they face France and Portugal in friendlies and Stefan Bajcetic is in the Spain U21s roster for Czechia and Germany. James McConnell and Trey Nyoni are with the England “elite league” squad, Keyrol Figueroa is with USA U20s, and Trent Kone-Doherty has been called up for Republic of Ireland U19s duty.
Joshua Sonni-Lambie and Rio Ngumoha are with England at U18 and U17 age group respectively. In total, that means 26 players are set to be with their nations over the next week or so, with Liverpool’s next game coming in the Premier League at home to Everton at the start of April.
Liverpool.com says: Arne Slot will be hoping that no one gets injured but for the likes of Elliott and Endo, this is a chance to get some minutes in the tank. Before the end of the campaign, there is a strong argument to give a few more fringe players a go to see what they are capable of ahead of what should be a big summer.
