3 days Ago By [email protected] (Theo Squires)
Mohamed Salah and Erling Haaland have been two of the standout players during the early weeks of the Premier League season. The Egyptian has returned three goals and three assists from Liverpool’s opening four matches, while the Norwegian already boasts a lofty lead in the race for the Golden Boot, having scored a whopping nine goals. With the prolific pair in such form, it is no surprise to see Man City and the Reds sitting atop the Premier League table once again.
And after both forwards came in for criticism at points during the second half of last season, it was no coincidence to see both return to top form and lead the way in the Premier League after enjoying a full summer break. Alexis Mac Allister targeted in three separate incidents as angry Anfield reacts to Liverpool call Thiago Alcantara makes Ryan Gravenberch prediction and explains Liverpool ambition After all, the pair had made 99 and 102 appearances respectively for Liverpool and Man City over the past two years, not forgetting a further 15 and 12 outings for Egypt and Norway during the same time-period. While many of their club team-mates and rivals competed at Euro 2024 and the Copa America, the pair had no such international exploits.
Consequently, after a full summer break, they both then enjoyed a full pre-season with Liverpool and Man City. The proof is in the pudding, as they say, as the Premier League witnesses just how deadly the pair can be. But while they are in top form after enjoying the ideal close-season preparations, it cannot be overlooked how a number of stars have endured slow starts to the campaign following extended international participation and subsequent delayed returns to club action.
International football returned again this month, as the pair continued their impressive scoring form. Salah scored in a 4-0 victory over Botswana, while Haaland was on the scoresheet in a 2-1 win over Norway. Yet the pair endured contrasting fortunes on their Premier League returns.
While Pep Guardiola’s men would come from behind against Brentford to maintain their 100% winning start to the season thanks to a brace from the Norwegian, the Egyptian struggled as Arne Slot suffered a shock first defeat as Liverpool head coach to Nottingham Forest . Evidently, there is a difference between a 24-year-old yet to enjoy his peak years travelling back from Europe and a 32-year-old making the trip to and from Africa. The Dutchman would later dismiss the impact of the international break on his side’s fortunes, but it’s perhaps still easy to put two and two together.
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“It is always difficult to say this, but I don’t think it had anything to do with it,” Slot insisted. “Players came back strong and I saw today also a team that wanted to fight until the end. “So it had nothing to do with energy, in my opinion, but we simply had the ball a lot and we had to create from ball possession.
If you look at the goals we have scored until now, we also scored quite a few from transition moments, from winning the ball back and then going to transition. “But the other team played over our press a lot with a lot of long balls, so like I said, we got the ball mostly in our last line. Then it wasn’t good enough today because also too many individual performances in ball possession were not of the standards that I am used to from these players.
” Salah’s standards certainly dropped. While the star man in the Reds’ 3-0 victory over Manchester United prior to the break, recording a goal and two assists, he endured a day to forget against Forest and was handed just a five in the ECHO’s player ratings. When Slot undertook his first interview as Liverpool head coach, he revealed how he was cheering on all of the Reds’ internationals at Euro 2024 and Copa America from afar.
“I've reached out to a few of them,” he said of his inherited squad. “I think it's normal to start with the captain, which is Virgil [van Dijk], which is an easy one for me because we could speak Dutch! “And from there on I called a few others, but not many of them because most of them are in preparation, or at this moment playing, at the Euros, and some others are in preparation at the Copa America. “So I think the best way is to keep a certain distance but also be interested in them as well.
And hoping that most of them – especially the Dutch! – will still be as long as possible away so they will reach the final.” Given Jurgen Klopp’s ill-feeling toward international football in an already overpopulated schedule were well-documented, such sentiments were perhaps in slight contrast to Slot’s predecessor. But while the Dutchman wasn’t publicly pointing the finger at the international break for the impact it had on his side’s performance against Nottingham Forest, it goes without saying that it would have been in Liverpool’s interests to avoid such an interruption to their league campaign.
Or, at the very least, if the likes of the 32-year-old Salah and the Reds’ other senior internationals avoided such exploits and were instead afforded more in-season breaks to ensure fresher legs. That lack of international football aided the Egyptian in the summer, after all. Alas, from a selfish Liverpool point of view, the forward won’t be retiring from representing his country anytime soon.
And the likes of fellow senior stars Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson have signalled their intent to continue their own international careers also. While former Liverpool vice-captain James Milner called time on his England career in 2016, and went on to enjoy seven further seasons representing the Reds, Salah, Van Dijk and Robertson won’t be following such an example. Salah and co.
will have to continue to find a way to balance their workloads as they navigate their veteran years. A ‘blow’ of sorts that their schedules remain fully-packed as a result, while it would be a bonus for Liverpool if their focus was on club football alone, Slot has no choice but to continue cheering them on from afar and crossing his fingers they return to Merseyside injury-free. With the October, November and March international breaks still to come this season, Kopites can only hope that Salah and the Reds will be in better form the next time they return to action after such excursions.
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