Arne Slot misses out on major Liverpool pre-season boost by a matter of minutes

Arne Slot is set to meet his Liverpool squad for the first time when the Reds first team reports back for pre-season training at the end of the week.

With Euro 2024 and Copa America currently taking place, the Dutchman will be left without his 14 players who have participated in either tournament when his senior ranks first report back to the AXA Training Centre.

Liverpool traditionally grant their international players a three-week holiday, meaning such players will make staggered returns for pre-season across the rest of the month.

Andy Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai and Vitezslav Jaros will be the first to link up after suffering Euro 2024 group-stage exits, with their returns scheduled for mid-July as a result.

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In contrast, with the Reds’ four South American players all pretty much guaranteed a place in at least the Copa America quarter-finals, they won’t report back for pre-season until the end of the month at the earliest. And with Darwin Nunez currently set to face either Luis Diaz or Alisson Becker in a last-eight tie, one of the trio is poised to at the continental tournament for the duration, given it has a third place play-off, and won't report for pre-season until early-August.

With a new head coach in place at Anfield, such waits will be a challenge for Slot as he works alongside his inherited squad for the first time. While he has reached out to captain Virgil van Dijk, he has already admitted that introductions with the rest of his internationals will wait until after Euro 2024 and Copa America.

“I've reached out to a few of them… I think it's normal to start with the captain, which is Virgil, which is an easy one for me because we could speak Dutch!” he explained in his first in-house interview with the club.

“And from there on I called a few others, but not many of them because most of them are in preparation, or at this moment playing, at the Euros, and some others are in preparation at the Copa America. So I think the best way is to keep a certain distance but also be interested in them as well.

“And hoping that most of them - especially the Dutch! - will still be as long as possible away so they will reach the final. Then afterwards I will get to meet them and I think that's a better way of getting to know each other than by phone or Zoom meetings.”

While Slot might be wishing for his international players to enjoy lengthy tournament excursions, there is no escaping the fact that premature exits would actually be beneficial for the new Liverpool head coach as he gets his feet under the table at the AXA Training Centre.

And as the Euro 2024 round-of-16 got underway, he was actually a matter of minutes away from receiving a number of pre-season boosts - even if he won’t admit it publicly!

England required a 95th minute equaliser from Jude Bellingham against Slovakia to force extra-time and book a quarter-final clash with Switzerland, with Reds pair Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez only a minute away from a premature exit as a result on Sunday.

Meanwhile, an 85th own goal from Jan Vertonghen saw France beat Belgium to extend Ibrahima Konate’s stay in the competition. And on Monday night, Diogo Jota’s Portugal required penalties to get past Slovenia after a 0-0 draw.

Portugal and France will now face off in the quarter-finals on July 5, with one of Jota and Konate guaranteed an early exit as a result. But even then, the eliminated Red wouldn’t report back for pre-season training until the eve of Liverpool’s tour of the United States at the end of the month.

Whichever one reaches the semi-finals will miss the start of that tour, with the same true of Alexander-Arnold and Gomez if England get the better of Switzerland on Saturday.

What makes such delays even more frustrating for the Reds is the fact that Konate and Gomez have been left unused throughout the tournament to date, Alexander-Arnold didn’t feature against Slovakia after being dropped by Gareth Southgate in the group-stages, and Jota has only been utilised as a substitute so far.

The Netherlands will look to reach the quarter-finals on Tuesday evening, as they take on Romania with a quarter-final clash against Austria or Turkey lying in wait. Van Dijk and Cody Gakpo are likely to start for the Dutch, but Ryan Gravenberch has also been left unused throughout the tournament so far.

Regardless of their result against Romania, they won’t report back for pre-season until near the end of July at the earliest.

Slot will continue to watch on from afar, wishing his players well and hoping they stay free of injury. But with Liverpool’s pre-season about to get underway, he will be counting down until his internationals return and preparations for the new campaign can really ramp up.