Liverpool's Pre-Season Concerns Overblown Despite World Cup Disruption
Pre-season disruption from the World Cup appears less severe than initially feared, with most of the squad available from the start and key players likely returning by late July for adequate preparation.
A few people seem concerned about pre-season being missed by a lot of our squad. The World Cup final is pencilled in for July 19th, and the Premier League season has been delayed to a 22nd August start. So even players who get to the final can have a two-week break then come back for a two-week pre-season. It's not ideal, but there is quite a healthy 33-day gap.
Isak, Kerkez, Szoboszlai, Leoni, Mamardashvili, Jaros, Elliott, Gomez, Rio, Bajcetic, McConnell, Danns, Nyoni, Beck, Tsimikas, Woodman, Stephenson and Ramsay will all most likely be involved in pre-season right from the start as they either didn't qualify or aren't part of the national team set up. Also, only one of Chiesa, Bradley and Koumas can qualify due to the play-off format drawing Northern Ireland, Italy and Wales in the same pathway. They could all miss out if Bosnia win. So that's 20 or 21 players already more or less guaranteed and crucially, Isak is a part of the group as he needs a full pre-season desperately.
Jones is touch and go whether he even gets selected for England. I'd lean towards no, right now, so he may start pre-season too making it up to 21 or 22 players. Albeit only four or five of them are regular starters, but it gives any new manager a decent group to get started with. Some of those players might even see it as a fresh opportunity to reignite their Liverpool careers with a new management group.
Expected Early Returns
Gakpo, Gravenberch, Frimpong and Virgil are not likely to go deep into the knockouts in my opinion. Same goes for Wirtz as Germany are really unbalanced, lacking both defenders and goal scorers. Endo's Japan won't go very far either, and might not even get out the group. Brazil are not what they once were and with that in mind Alisson could be back sooner than expected. Egypt won't go far so expect Salah back early, assuming he doesn't go straight to Saudi. Robbo is most likely to leave Liverpool anyway but his Scotland side won't go far if he does sign a new deal.I'd hazard a guess all of these players will be back in pre-season by the last week of July, giving them nearly a full month of pre-season.
The Real Concerns
Ekitike, Mac Allister and Konate are the ones I wouldn't bank on being back early. But Konate and Mac Allister are two of the players currently in the squad who I'd say are the most likely to leave. Mac Allister has criticised the club publicly for making too many changes, and he was very open that he was missing the likes of Nunez and Diaz as well, so I think he's possibly missing his Latin American friends. Real Madrid beckons. Konate is probably not going to get a new deal from this position, especially if his £250k wage demands are true. Another possible Real Madrid move.The Bottom Line
Basically, I'm only really worried about Ekitike getting a short two-week pre-season because France are a team capable of going all the way to the final. Everyone else either isn't going, won't be here next season anyway, or is quite likely to get knocked out by early July. It's nowhere near as disruptive as it could be when you break it down and think about it logically.
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