Liverpool fans suspicious as Man City recall players from international duty
By David Gate
Liverpool fans are raising eyebrows at Man City as their title rivals have recalled players from international duty sparking suspicion.
This is not so much a ‘breaking news’ story as a ‘here we go again’ tale. Man City have recalled England stars John Stones and Fabian Delph from the national squad as Liverpool fans look on with suspicion.
Manchester City already had David Silva, Aymeric Laporte and Sergio Aguero have been kept out of their international squads despite all three playing on Sunday against Swansea in the FA Cup.
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The Premier League champions have also moved to withdraw Stones and Delph. To be fair to City, Stones has been dealing with an injury for a few weeks. However, Delph started at left back at the weekend and showed no injury signs.
This is a reoccurring theme at international breaks where big sides invent excuses to keep their players at the their training grounds.
Sir Alex Ferguson was a master at manipulating the system. And while Liverpool have savvied up a little – Andrew Robertson is missing his Scotland internationals next week for example – the Reds still don’t do this on the scale of other leading clubs.
Therefore these players end up either coming back tired from the internationals or carrying various injuries they picked up while away.
The Reds have already had Xherdan Shaqiri return from international duty this week with a groin injury. That puts him as a serious doubt for the crucial Premier League matchup with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday March 31st.
Jurgen Klopp will be throwing up some prayers to keep his players safe over the next two weeks. The remaining seven Premier League games and Champions League quarter finals are just around the corner and the manager will need every single squad member ready to go.