It was another busy fortnight for Liverpool’s internationals and a couple of injury scares would have had Arne Slot concerned ahead of the Premier League run-in.
The Reds had 20 first-team players report for international duty this month but two went unused for their country.
Ryan Gravenberch made an early return to Liverpool days after reporting for duty with the Netherlands before Alisson followed thanks to a head injury suffered while with Brazil.
Both are expected to be fit to return against Everton and the hope is the extra rest will benefit them both with Liverpool just 16 points away from clinching the Premier League title.
With international action over for the rest of the season, let’s take a look at who played the most minutes and who notched either a goal or assist during the March break.
Minutes played
The Reds had five players called on for every minute of their international fixtures, and that even included extra time and penalties for Virgil van Dijk – far from ideal!
Everyone with the exception of Jarell Quansah and Gravenberch made an appearance, the latter made an early return to Liverpool due to a fitness issue but is expected to be OK for the run-in:
Virgil van Dijk – 210Mo Salah – 180Dominik Szoboszlai – 180Luis Diaz – 180Caoimhin Kelleher – 180Cody Gakpo – 168Wataru Endo – 164Andy Robertson – 163Alexis Mac Allister – 156Harvey Elliott – 139Darwin Nunez – 117Kostas Tsimikas – 90James McConnell – 90Curtis Jones – 85Alisson – 78Trey Nyoni – 78Diogo Jota – 58Ibrahima Konate – 45Jarell Quansah – 0Ryan Gravenberch – 0
Goals
Five different first-team players got on the scoresheet, and Slot will be hoping that Diaz replicates his efforts after scoring only once for Liverpool in his last 18 outings.
Mac Allister, meanwhile, showed off his ability to make a perfect run into the box, scoring only his fourth goal for Argentina:
Diaz – 2Elliott – 1Gakpo – 1Salah – 1Mac Allister – 1
Assists
As for setting up goals, each of Slot’s favoured three forwards ended their break with an assist:
Salah – 1Jota – 1Diaz – 1