Liverpool -head coach Arne Slot believes that the international break may have yielded an important reset for his players.
Last month the Premier League leaders suffered consecutive defeats for the first time after they had left the Champions League to PSG before he lost the Carabao Cup final to Newcastle.
Slot says about all the breaks, this was the one he “needed the most”, and believes that his players are renewed and ready for the last nine games while trying to close a second title in five years.
“The first three (breaks) were after one or two months of work, it was non-stop work after four months, so I like it most for the simple reason that it was four months in a row,” he said prior to Everton for the 246th Merseyside derby.
“It was my first experience playing in the winter, so this one I liked best, I also needed the most.
“The mental break (for the players) comes more from going to a different environment with different teammates.
“For that reason it might have been a good time after you lose two games. If you stay in your club, you have to win your next game, but if you go to your national team, things are new again.
“Lucho (Luis) Diaz had two goals (for Colombia), Cody Gakpo had a goal (for the Netherlands), so a few of our players showed themselves in a very good way again.”
The successive losses of the Reds before the International Break led to suggestions that Slot's team no longer had steam, but the Dutchman rejected the premise that started to play fatigue in their campaign.
“When I watch the PSG game, I don't think I saw my players work as hard as 120 minutes in the eight or nine months that I have been to work,” he said.
“Perhaps that was also the reason why we looked tired in the final, but maybe I don't give the right honor to Newcastle that made it difficult for us.
“They (Liverpool players) may have been a little more renewed than in a normal international break because we did not play at the weekend.
“Most of them also had a few days off, for the first time in months they had three, four or five days off, so that is perhaps the reason why I use the word 'renewed'.”
Moyes desperate to put an end to Winless Anfield Streak
Everton -Manager David Moyes has meanwhile admitted that his bad record in Anfield is heavily hanging and he wants to get rid of it. The Scot has never won in Liverpool in 21 attempts and only attracts seven, with the Toffees, Manchester United, Sunderland and West Ham.
In his second enchantment with Everton, he would like nothing more than to put an end to that series, after he had enjoyed an unbeaten Premier League run since taking over in January.
Asked if the unwanted record was a weight on its neck, Moyes said: “Yes. I don't want it, I want to win and I want to make sure I get rid of it when I can.
“Am I tired of it? I would lie if I said I was looking forward to always going because it was such a difficult place to get results.
“It is nothing to do with the environment, nothing to do with the field, nothing to do with something else, it has to do with those who always produce good teams. I think every team in the Premier League, when they go to Anfield, holds a match.
“We may be further away from Liverpool than we ever had. By the time I had left here perhaps 10 years ago, we were much closer to Liverpool, we were competitive and competing around the same parts of the competition at that time. I think it is currently the biggest gap between the two clubs.
“It would be huge for us as a club to get that, because it is not something that the club has done particularly often.”
Everton took a 2-2 draw in Goodison Park in February thanks to the dramatic level of James Tarkowski deep in the extra time.
View Liverpool vs Everton, live on Sky Sports Premier League on Wednesday; kick -off 8 p.m.
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