Liverpool struggles may actually be rewarded as Mohamed Salah big beneficiary of schedule change

Last season — we’re sorry to once again remind you — Liverpool came agonizingly close to winning a quadruple.

Heading into the last week of the campaign, the Reds still had a chance to achieve what no English side ever had before, with the Carabao Cup and FA Cup already in the bag.

But after Manchester City denied them the Premier League title by coming from two goals to beat Aston Villa 3-2 on the final day, they suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Real Madrid in the Champions League final in Paris.

READ MORE: Every Liverpool player available to play Aston Villa as five out but Roberto Firmino gets boost

READ MORE: Jürgen Klopp has evolved dangerous Liverpool weapon as new Trent Alexander-Arnold truth emerges

A domestic cup double was a fine achievement but it nonetheless felt like a scant reward for a Herculean effort. After all, Liverpool had played a whopping 63 matches, the highest possible total across the four competitions.

This year, by contrast, Jürgen Klopp’s side will end the campaign having played just 51 times, or 52 if you count the Community Shield as a competitive fixture.

That’s because it has bowed out of every tournament at the second hurdle. There was a heavy 6-2 aggregate defeat against Real Madrid in the Champions League round of 16, a 3-2 reverse away to Man City in the Carabao Cup fourth round and a stoppage-time winner for Brighton at the same stage of the FA Cup.

All in all, it work out as around 900 minutes, or 16 and a half hours, fewer than last season.

If we look at it from the players’ perspective, their total playing time this term stands at 49,466 minutes, with two games still remaining. On average, the squad members used by Klopp have clocked 1,499 minutes.

Last year, on the other hand, the total minutes reached an enormous 62,966, while the average was significantly higher too at 1,749.

Only two players — Alisson and Mohamed Salah — have cleared the 4,000-minute mark in 2022/23, whereas five players did in 2021/22 (Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Salah and Andy Robertson).

Liverpool exited its final cup competition (the Champions League) in mid-March, and so the run-in has been far less intense than in recent years. But looking ahead, what does the summer have in store?

Well, the good news (in the short-term at least) is that the Africa Cup of Nations has been moved from its original off-season slot to January 2024, along with the Asian Cup.

The CONCACAF Gold Cup (June 24 to July 16) remains in its original slot, but no current Liverpool players will be involved.

At youth level, Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott could be among those who head to the Under-21 European Championships, set to begin on June 21 and end on July 8.

So while there are no senior major tournaments for the Reds to worry about, Virgil van Dijk and Cody Gakpo are poised to feature for the Netherlands in the Nations League finals.

Aside from that, there will be European Championship qualifiers between June 16 and 20, and friendly action for the rest of the world.

Klopp has previously voiced his frustration at the scheduling of such games after the conclusion of the club season, complaining that the players are denied the chance for ‘a proper summer break’ and questioning ‘how the boys will get through it’ (via BBC Sport).

But all in all, the burden on the Liverpool squad should be fairly light.

The off-season break will last about three weeks, just as it did last year, but crucially, this time Liverpool players will return with much less football in their legs.

If the physical and mental hangover from last season’s marathon was a key contributor to this season’s struggles, then perhaps Liverpool can thrive next season on the back of a far more forgiving schedule.

In a sense, the club has been punished for its success, but it might now be rewarded for its failure to hit the same heights.