{"id":6507,"date":"2017-10-11T15:00:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T14:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.friendsofliverpool.com\/?p=6507"},"modified":"2017-10-11T13:04:38","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T12:04:38","slug":"player-analysis-international-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.friendsofliverpool.com\/2017\/10\/player-analysis-international-duty\/","title":{"rendered":"Player Analysis: International Duty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>With the build-up to Saturday\u2019s match against Manchester United now underway, here is how some of the Liverpool players fared during the international break.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>England\/England U21<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>England confirmed their place in the 2018 World Cup with a 1\u20130 win against Slovenia at Wembley on Thursday evening. However their performance \u2013 along with the one against Lithuania on Sunday \u2013 was unimpressive, to say the least. <strong>Jordan Henderson<\/strong>, in particular, epitomised England\u2019s insipid style. The central midfielder was accused of producing poor, scrappy, and uninspired performances. He very rarely directed the play forward \u2013 instead choosing to pass backwards and sideways. <strong>Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain<\/strong> was another Liverpool player who disappointed at Wembley \u2013 he had a desperately poor night, was subbed just after the hour mark and didn\u2019t feature away in Vilnius. <strong>Daniel Sturridge<\/strong> \u2013 the only other Liverpool player with the current England squad \u2013 only managed twenty minutes in the second game; however, he appeared lively and had a couple of chances.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dominic Solanke<\/strong> scored England U21\u2019s 3rd goal in a 3\u20131 win over Scotland U21 \u2013 a game that also featured <strong>Trent Alexander-Arnold<\/strong> and <strong>Joe Gomez. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Home Nations<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Andy Robertson<\/strong> and his Scotland teammates were agonisingly close to reaching the play-off round \u2013 a 1\u20130 win at Hampden Park against Slovakia produced hope but the 2\u20132 draw against Slovenia produced broken hearts. Robertson, himself, exhibited the exciting, attacking wing-play and sound defensive ability that he has displayed when given opportunities at Anfield this season.<\/p>\n<p>Wales also followed the same fate as Scotland by finishing 3rd in their group \u2013 defeat to the Republic of Ireland (1\u20130) meant that Wales failed to reach the World Cup. <strong>Ben Woodburn <\/strong>came on as a 64th minute substitute in Cardiff but, despite some nice touches, was unable to influence any comeback for the Welsh.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Europe<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The Netherlands will not be at the 2018 World Cup after finishing 3rd in their qualifying group \u2013 thus missing their second consecutive international tournament. <strong>Georginio Wijnaldum<\/strong> has featured heavily in the centre of midfield for the Dutch despite the numerous managerial changes during qualification.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Emre Can<\/strong> came on for the last thirty minutes against Northern Ireland in Germany\u2019s 3\u20131 win; however, it was in the match at home to Azerbaijan that he really shone. Can looked at ease playing as the defensive midfielder for the current World Champions and capped off his impressive display with a wonderful long-range goal.<\/p>\n<p>Going into their final match away to Ukraine needing a win, Croatia, with <strong>Dejan Lovren<\/strong> in the centre of their defence, produced a superb display as they clinched a 2\u20130 victory to book their place in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>Another one of Liverpool\u2019s centre-backs,<strong> Ragnar Klavan<\/strong>, captained Estonia to the biggest victory (6\u20130) in their entire history \u2013 albeit against Gibraltar.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Rest of the World<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Mohamed Salah<\/strong> converted a stoppage-time penalty to seal a dramatic 2\u20131 win for Egypt against Congo. The win in Alexandria meant that Egypt qualified for their first World Cup since 1990.<\/p>\n<p>With Brazil already qualified for next year\u2019s World Cup \u2013 and one of the favourites to win it \u2013 the South Americans could afford to relax and take it easy when they faced Bolivia (well, as easy as you can take it when you are playing at an altitude of almost 12,000 feet). <strong>Philippe Coutinho <\/strong>started, played reasonably well for an hour and then was substituted. If ever there was an international break that could drain a player out before a big clash in the league it was this one \u2013 a round-trip of over 12,000 miles and a match played in the clouds. <strong>Roberto Firmino<\/strong> remained amongst the substitutes.<\/p>\n<p>Two late goals gave Senegal a 2\u20130 victory over Cape Verde and put them in a strong position for qualification. Africa\u2019s qualifying campaign runs until November and so <strong>Sadio Mane<\/strong> and Senegal will not know if they\u2019ll be in Russia until next month. Although Mane didn\u2019t score against Cape Verde he did put in an industrious display and was a threat on the right-hand side. However, bad news arrived on Tuesday when it was announced that Mane had sustained a hamstring injury during a training session that leaves him facing up to six weeks on the sidelines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the build-up to Saturday\u2019s match against Manchester United now underway, here is how some of the Liverpool players fared during the international break. England\/England U21 England confirmed their place in the 2018 World Cup with a 1\u20130 win against Slovenia at Wembley on Thursday evening. However their performance \u2013 along with the one against [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":6093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1819],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Player Analysis: International Duty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.friendsofliverpool.com\/2017\/10\/player-analysis-international-duty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Player Analysis: International Duty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the build-up to Saturday\u2019s match against Manchester United now underway, here is how some of the Liverpool players fared during the international break. England\/England U21 England confirmed their place in the 2018 World Cup with a 1\u20130 win against Slovenia at Wembley on Thursday evening. 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