Liverpool were the surprise contenders for the Premier League title last season, pushing Manchester City extremely close beforefinishing the campaign in second.
If they didn’t ‘slip’ up in a few of those fixtures, the Reds could have had their first English league trophy in 24 years.
However it wasn’t meant to be, and to make matters worse star striker Luis Suarez departed the club to join Barcelona for an estimated £74million.
The Merseyside club and coach Brendan Rodgers went into the market and bought multiple new additions over the summer, but thus far Liverpool have yet to find their best eleven with a few new signings still desperate to make their mark at Anfield.
With the international break now upon us once again, here are THREE Liverpool players that need to prove themselves with their national squads.
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Adam Lallana
Just having returned from injury, Adam Lallana scored a brilliant goal to give Liverpool a 1-0 lead over West Bromwich Albion over the weekend. And it would prove to be essential, as the Reds only went on to win the game 2-1 courtesy of a Jordan Henderson strike.
With the likes of Lazar Markovic, Mario Balotelli, and also Philippe Coutinho all vying for a place in the attacking front, a good performance for Lallana while on duty with the England national setup could force manager Brendan Rodgers to deploy him on the left regularly at the expense of one of his other stars.
Lallana will be expected to start on the left of England’s 4-2-3-1 formation, with either one of team-mate Rickie Lambert or Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney leading the line.
Rickie Lambert
If Rickie Lambert is the person chosen to lead the line for Roy Hodgson’s side, then he too must prove to the Liverpool coaches and supporters he has the ability to start up front for his club.
Purchased for £4million after two brilliant seasons with Southampton, Lambert hasn’t had much of a look-in at Anfield, with £16million summer signing Mario Balotelli and Daniel Sturridge ahead of him in the pecking order.
However, whenever Lambert has featured, he has proved to be a handful in the opponents’ box. For England he already has three goals after only making his first ever Three Lions appearance a year ago… and will hope to impress his country and his national coach he is worthy of his call-up.
A good performance from Lambert in the upcoming weeks and Balotelli could be left frustrated once again on the bench.
Lazar Markovic
If Mario Balotelli was called up by Antonio Conte to feature for Italy, then he would undoubtedly be the man that must prove himself after all the hype surrounding his arrival from AC Milan. But instead, Southampton striker Pelle will get his chance to gain his first cap for Italy.
Therefore another summer signing that hasn’t featured much that could make an impact for his country over the next two weeks is Lazar Markovic. The Serbian, despite his lack of playing time, has been called up by Dick Advocaat and could play against Armenia and Albania in the European qualifiers.
Interestingly Markovic will be fighting for the same role on the left that Lallana is looking to play in Brendan Rodgers’ setup. With a decent run of fixtures ahead for Liverpool, an inspiring display with Serbia from the 20-year-old winger could see Rodgers consider Markovic in his gameweek plans.
