Arne Slot confronted his first relentless run at Liverpool earlier than the October worldwide break, however he could have the identical quantity of video games with a day much less to spare on return to motion.
Between the primary and second worldwide breaks of the season, the Reds performed seven video games in 22 days to emerge with six wins and one irritating defeat.
Liverpool’s head coach needed to embrace rotation, and he ended up making a mean of 4.2 adjustments between video games, although the League Cup win over West Ham inflates that determine.
Should you take the cup recreation out of the equation, he averaged 2.2 adjustments to his XI and 4.2 substitutions throughout a match.
The Reds return to motion in opposition to Chelsea, with Enzo Maresca’s aspect making the journey to Anfield for a late Sunday afternoon kick-off – which begins the run of defining fixtures.
Chelsea are at present fourth within the desk and have received every of their three video games on the highway, outscoring their opponent 10-2. They’ll imagine they will win in L4.
A win right here will likely be a significant enhance to momentum and set the tone forward of the squad’s time away from Anfield. Slot has put his workforce in an incredible place so there’s no purpose why this run shouldn’t be met with pleasure.
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Three in a row away from dwelling
The Chelsea recreation kicking off on Sunday does give Slot barely further time to get his internationals settled again in earlier than a run of three away video games within the house of every week.
Liverpool will then journey to Leipzig, London and Brighton – which quantities to 1,698 kilometres of air journey for the workforce in fast succession as they compete in three completely different competitions.
That makes it 4 video games in simply 11 days!
Rotation will certainly come into play for the League Cup tie – so long as Slot’s squad continues to be match and wholesome – and we are going to quickly know if one trophy is off the playing cards or if a Wembley run is feasible.
This run, due to this fact, is undoubtedly defining for the Reds. Victory at Leipzig will take them a step nearer to avoiding a two-game playoff within the Champions League whereas taking factors off Arsenal within the league can be a significant enhance.
They’ll have to take action with out Alisson, who isn’t anticipated to return till after the November worldwide break. No less than Liverpool have a category No. 2 to show to in his absence!
The journey to the Emirates is to provide us the strongest indication but of Liverpool’s credentials, it’ll form our expectations and we are saying, convey it on! It might probably’t go worse than final season, proper?
Arsenal is the recreation of this specific run, however consistency will likely be key and rotation will play an enormous position in what the scoreboard reads on the finish of every 90 minutes.
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Then three on the bounce at Anfield
After a whirlwind week of journey, Liverpool can at the very least then put roots down at Anfield earlier than the third and last worldwide break of 2024 – sure, sadly, there may be one extra.
Liverpool will likely be very acquainted with Brighton by the point they arrive to city, and the precedence must be three league factors over League Cup development, you’ll assume, at the very least.
We wouldn’t thoughts each, although!
Xabi Alonso will then return as a supervisor for the primary time, and his aspect will demand Liverpool to be at their greatest and stuffed with power, which might effectively be waning at this stage.
Aston Villa will do the identical simply days later, however at the very least in addition they have midweek commitments that see them journey to Brugge and have at some point much less to arrange for Slot’s aspect.
With 12 league factors obtainable, cup development and an opportunity to entrench themselves within the high eight of the Champions League, each recreation is essential.
Slot has made it clear each likelihood he has had that his aspect had but to have sustained exams, however that’s shortly about to vary – and we’ll know much more about what is feasible within the coming weeks.
There could also be a have to do some trade-offs, however Liverpool have given us a robust indication that they will bounce again from setbacks and string outcomes collectively regardless of having little downtime.
Three weeks of Premier League, Champions League and League Cup motion. You recognize what to do, Liverpool!
