The South American fans of Liverpool are once again pressed for time to return to Merseyside before the start of the Premier League after the break. An increasing number of the Liverpool talents have come from South America, which has always been one of the major hotbeds of football talent.
The Reds have relied more on players from the area as the Premier League has become more international. This trend started with Mauricio Pellegrino and continued with early trailblazers Fabio Aurelio and Lucas Leiva, the impact of Luis Suarez, Roberto Firmino and Fabinho, all the way up to the current roster members. International recognition for such players has frequently been sparked by their success with Liverpool, or at the very least has been maintained.
The Reds, like every other European club, recognize the benefits of acquiring some of the continent’s top talent at this point. The second World Cup qualifying doubleheader for each of their nations will take place early on Wednesday morning UK time. Alisson Becker, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, and Alexis MacAllister have all taken flights across the globe to participate. With Liverpool playing in the 12:30 p.m. kick-off after an international break for the 13th time since Jurgen Klopp took over in October 2015—more than twice as many as the next club—late finishes could become a problem.
The Anfield derby against Everton is one of those games. They undoubtedly did when the Reds were the early kick-off following the international break last month. While Mac Allister’s poor first-half performance before being replaced was largely due to fatigue given that he had only returned to England a matter of 48 hours earlier, Diaz and Nunez were both benched at Wolves but both came on in the second half to great effect as Liverpool came back to win 3-1. The midfielder will be the last Liverpool player to play in the early hours of next Wednesday because Argentina’s match in Peru doesn’t even get underway until 3am UK time. While Diaz is anticipated to play for Colombia in Ecuador at 12:30 am, Alisson’s Brazil and Nunez’s Uruguay will face off in Montevideo at 1 am. However, the difficulties Liverpool faced two years ago when they traveled to Watford and had to deal with the post-international break issue as well as the additional difficulty of coronavirus travel restrictions are unlikely to be exceeded.
Alisson and Fabinho, on the other hand, flew directly from South America to Madrid, where the Reds were scheduled to play Atletico Madrid in the Champions League a few days after they arrived. But Liverpool romped to a 5-0 victory at Vicarage Road without them. When the neighbors call, imagine how much Klopp would like to see that happen again.
