Jurgen Klopp made an optimistic appeal to his Liverpool squad’s managers as they prepared for the international break, but Andy Robertson has since returned injured.
Liverpool saw 25 players called up for their national teams this month, with 17 coming from the first-team squad.
The majority of countries participated in two friendly rather than the regular qualifiers. Which fell during an unforgiving calendar for clubs across Europe.
After Liverpool‘s FA Cup final 4-3 defeat against Manchester United. Klopp stated his wish that national team managers will exercise prudence with their players.
“I think most of them have friendlies, but I cannot make these decisions for the managers, most of them we don’t speak the same language,” he told the reporter.
“They want them to be in the best shape for the summer; most of them compete [in summer tournaments]. So I hope they don’t have to play two 90-minute games.
“That would be helpful, but it’s not in my hands.”
Scotland boss Steve Clarke is one of few who speaks the same language as Klopp.
Although Robertson has started both of his country’s friendlies this month.
The skipper played 90 minutes in a 4-0 loss to the Netherlands on Friday before being forced to leave with an ankle injury after 37 minutes in a 1-0 loss to Northern Ireland on Tuesday.
Robertson had two start soon.
Robertson had two starts in five days. Playing as a left wing-back in Clarke’s 3-4-2-1 system, whereas Celtic left-back Greg Taylor didn’t play a single minute.
Robertson will now have a scan on Merseyside to ascertain the extent of his injury, with his response as he went off the pitch at Hampden Park leading speculation that his season will end early.
Given Scotland‘s participation in the Euros this summer – only the fourth time in their history – there may be concerns about his engagement in Germany.
That would be self-defeating in terms of Clarke‘s selection process for two meaningless friendlies, as he would remain with a player – albeit his captain – who was already a guaranteed starter for both games rather than experimenting with new faces.
It was obviously not a case of keeping him fresh, given Scotland still had two warmup games against Gibraltar and Finland before the tournament June.
Robertson was not the only Liverpool player to start two games for his country this month; Virgil van Dijk, Luis Diaz, Dominik Szoboszlai, Conor Bradley, and Kostas Tsimikas all did so.
Van Dijk and Szoboszlai both played the full 90 minutes as captains for the Netherlands and Hungary, respectively.
While Tsimikas played 210 minutes against Kazakhstan and Georgia in Greece’s playoff final, which went into extra time.
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