Although Liverpool will lose players to the winter World Cup, Jürgen Klopp may soon have a pleasant surprise. Now, a perplexing decision “seems certain” to be made
The majority of the greatest clubs in the European game will find the winter World Cup to be a hindrance.
The largest international football competition will be conducted in the middle of the season for the first time in the sport’s history, and clubs are worried that their players would return physically and mentally exhausted — let alone maybe injured, missing weeks or months of the club season.
In this way, Liverpool are hardly an exception. For the tournament in less than two months, the Reds stand to lose a multitude of players. However, due to their individual countries’ failure to qualify, some players, like Mohamed Salah and Luis Diáz, won’t be traveling to Qatar.
Other players like Roberto Firmino, Fabinho, and rookie Arthur Melo are also “maybes” for the competition. The Brazil team is one of the most competitive of the group, thus everything will depend on how they perform in Qatar. The previous duo made the most recent team, but Firmino’s call-up was rather unexpected, and only Fabinho appears to have a good chance of making the flight.
Thiago Alcantara, a master of the midfield for Liverpool, was another player who had been part of this ambiguous group.
Over the past few years, the Spaniard’s relationship with his adopted nation has been a little strange. He only appeared for 64 minutes in total throughout Spain’s Euro 2020 campaign.
Since then, Thiago hasn’t represented his nation on the field, and Luis Enrique, the manager of Spain, has left him out of the most recent round of games. Even yet, it seemed absurd that he would be overlooked for the largest competition of the bunch.
However, the Athletic reports that Thiago’s withdrawal from the most recent team makes it ‘seems definite’ that he will remain at home. Another Liverpool player missed the flight to the Middle East at the beginning of November, which is excellent news for the team even if it is unfortunate for the midfielder.
Everyone is aware of Thiago’s struggles to keep up his fitness level since joining Liverpool. Thiago has been sidelined for an extended length of time each of his three seasons at Anfield.
He sustained a hamstring injury this season after suffering a calf and hip injury in his first season due to a terrible tackle from Richarlison. In his second season, Thiago also sustained calf and hip ailments in the early part of the season.
The fact that Thiago will always sustain an injury means that Liverpool fans have accepted the notion that he will never go an entire season without getting hurt. His skill as a player, however, more than makes up for his difficulty to maintain health.
Thiago’s exclusion from the World Cup by Luis Enrique will actually be a blessing in disguise given his frail body. He won’t have to stress about having to run back to help Liverpool, giving him the chance to recover and focus on keeping fit for the month of the competition.
It would be one of the nicest Christmas presents ever, at least for the club. Many players will return after the competition exhausted, but Liverpool would benefit from having players like Salah, Diaz, and Thiago rested going into 2023. Nobody at Anfield will be able to genuinely believe it, even though the exclusion is now practically “certain,” until the final Spain squad is announced.
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