Jürgen Klopp must not make the same mistake twice when Liverpool returns to action against Everton after a clear warning from Alexis Mac Allister last month.
The second international break of the season is upon us, with Liverpooll personal best and Jürgen Klopp has three reasons to get excited
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The Reds’ 2-2 draw with Brighton on Sunday leaves them three points behind joint-leaders Spurs and Arsenal, and only one point adrift of reigning champion Manchester City.
Liverpool will return to action on Saturday, October 21 when it hosts Everton in the Merseyside derby, and once again, it has been given the lunchtime slot.
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Following the first international window of the season last month, Liverpool was also the first side in action as it traveled to Molineux to take on Wolves.
Jürgen Klopp’s squad was a little stretched for that game, particularly because its South American quartet wasn’t able to train until the day before the match.
Goalkeeper Alisson (Brazil) and midfielder Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina) were both named in the starting line-up, but the latter had to come off at half-time after struggling in the first half.
Luis Díaz (Colombia) and Darwin Núñez (Uruguay), meanwhile, were only deemed ready for the bench, with Klopp turning to the duo early in the second half, having expressed his dissatisfaction with the situation before the game.
“If I say a word about it, the whole world goes ‘he starts moaning again’,” Klopp said last month (via the ECHO).
“This is a joke. We have players [who were] in South America. I didn’t see them yet and we have 24 hours before we play, but it’s like it is. We cannot change that and we’ll never change that.”
Now, Liverpool faces a very similar predicament, except this time the strain will be even greater. Last month, Argentina and Uruguay both played their second games on Tuesday night UK time, with Colombia and Brazil featuring in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
But next week, all four teams will kick off after midnight on Wednesday as Díaz’s Colombia battles Ecuador at 12:30am, Alisson’s Brazil faces Núñez’s Uruguay at 1am, and Mac Allister’s Argentina meets Peru at 3am.
Liverpool.com says: While you’d hope that Alisson is fit to start as a goalkeeper, especially with Brazil coach Fernando Diniz currently favoring Manchester City’s Ederson, all four players will be in a race against time to prove their fitness when they return.
Klopp might opt to rest Mac Allister, Núñez and Díaz after seeing the former ‘relieved’ to come off against Wolves on the back of a difficult 45 minutes.
“Low energy level, Macca, some others as well, you could just see they struggled,” he said after the eventual 3-1 win (via This is Anfield). “He had some good moments in the first half but he was not disappointed to come off, more relief.”
If he throws in any of those players from the off and they face similar difficulties, then it might seem as if he’s ignored that lesson. Rather than overexerting Mac Allister, the manager could instead look to Wataru Endō to sit at the base of his midfield, but the situation in attack is a little more complicated as Liverpool will be waiting to see if Cody Gakpo, who’s had to withdraw from the Netherlands squad through injury, is ready to play.
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