It is often said amongst football fans that the international break is nothing but an unnecessary and disruptive blip in the domestic season. And as Liverpool fans – on the whole – have no great love for everything associated with the England setup, this annoyance with the break tends to bring double the irritation. However, it could be possible that, just for once, the break for internationals has come at a good time for the club and the first team and may well see a number of our key players come home in a different frame of mind.
For starters – England’s poor World Cup showing left a sour taste in the mouth. Not least of all because the Liverpool captain usually bears the brunt of the blame when England show a lack of creativity; ‘why can’t Gerrard perform in the same way for England as he does for Liverpool?’ is usually the reflective accusation levelled at him. Gerrard became more of a target following his elevation to England captain during the World Cup. But with a positive start to the recent Euro 2012 campaign, and a strong performance and influential display by the England captain and all of a sudden, things aren’t looking so bad. As a player who thrives or falls on confidence (or lack of it), the performance and result for England on Friday night will have been a huge boon for the Liverpool captain. With another display and result similar to Fridays’ on Tuesday, Steven Gerrard could well come back from the International break looking more like the player we’ve become accustomed to and start to have that same influence on the first team again. Likewise Glen Johnson – also a key first-team member of the England side – contributing to what was a professional defensive display for his country, should take pride and confidence from the result.
Similarly, the performances of two other key players – Dirk Kuyt and Fernando Torres – coupled with the results for their respective countries could well serve as a huge catalyst for the next few months, and could be like two new signings, should the International week pay off. Torres, netting twice for World and European champions Spain, is all about goals. Like Gerrard with confidence, Torres grows the more goals he scores, and he isn’t as regular for his country as he is for his club. So grabbing two goals in Spain’s 4-nil victory will remind him what it feels like to be at centre stage, having played second-fiddle to David Villa for so long for Spain, and struggling for goals from the back-end of last season. Like most strikers, all Torres needs is for the odd one or two to go in and he slides right back into that world-class form we all know he possesses in unfair amounts. The two extra games should serve as a great catch-up in terms of fitness too, as the rest of the squad are already some way ahead of him in that respect. Unlike Torres, Kuyt has not exactly been prolific for Liverpool but often scores important goals when it matters. The next 4 months leading up to Christmas are going to really matter to Liverpool, and having an experienced player like Kuyt chipping in with even the odd goal is going to be the difference between some nil-nil draws and some 1-nil wins. The Netherlands’ continued good form (WC final aside) and Kuyt’s penalty in the 5-nil win over San Marino on Friday will only boost the Dutchman for the coming slog leading up to Christmas. A couple more positive results for both men’s countries mid-week would be hugely appreciated.
Having not seen much of Raul Meireles, it was also good to see the Portuguese international grab a goal and put in a solid performance for his country at the weekend. And given that the midfield man is going to have – we would like to hope – a big influence over the Liverpool midfield this season, any goals or good performances he can chip in for his country can only be a good thing for his club on his return.
With the positive results from this first round of Internationals and hopefully with another few more goals and good results to come for Liverpool’s men representing their countries Liverpool’s key men can come back looking new and re-invigorated. So, as unusual as it sounds: I, for one, am thankful for this international break.
Follow us on twitter @live4Liverpool
Live4Liverpool is recruiting columnists. For further info contact the site editor at editor@live4liverpool.com
How I hope you’re right. I for one am going to be optimistic saying to myself that things will get better soon.
Agree Joe too much gloom and doom. Ever think the players affected by the negativity they must surely know about because thats all we ever hear. Get the Yanks Out, get rid of this player and that player, we should buy this one and that one, what did we buy him for why didnt we get him instead. etc. etc. lets all support the ones we’ve got – we can’t change them until next year.
Until Dirk Kuyt got injured…you may have had a point
TSP – see what I mean – I have been reading other articles on this site and acording to some comments we’ve got to get rid of Kuyt (and of course Lucas).
unfortunately we see the other side of the internationals though, with dirk kuyt now injured and likely to miss, among other games, the man united match.
Karl Matchett – as Kev Crawford says above, according to many, Kuyt should be sold! I don’t agree, you obviously don’t agree but many think Kuyt’s not good enough. Surely we’ve got someone who can stand in for Kuyt for a few games