Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman addresses the media during a press conference at the KNVB Campus in Zeist ahead of the Netherlands upcoming UEFA Nations League quarter-final football match against Spain. (Photo by Koen van Weel / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT (Photo by KOEN VAN WEEL/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)placeholder image
Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman addresses the media during a press conference at the KNVB Campus in Zeist ahead of the Netherlands upcoming UEFA Nations League quarter-final football match against Spain. (Photo by Koen van Weel / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT (Photo by KOEN VAN WEEL/ANP/AFP via Getty Images) | ANP/AFP via Getty Images
Liverpool pair Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Gravenberch have been used heavily by Arne Slot during the 2025-26 campaign.
Netherlands head coach Ronald Koeman has suggested that he will rotate his players during the international break with a quartet of Liverpool players involved.
Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo and Jeremie Frimpong are in Oranje’s squad for friendlies against Norway (Friday 27 March) and Ecuador (Tuesday 31 March). The former trio are all regular starters for the Netherlands.
However, Van Dijk and Gravenberch have particularly had an arduous season for Liverpool. No Reds players has played more minutes than Van Dijk, who is aged 34, during the 2025-26 campaign. The Anfield captain has clocked 4,938 minutes in all competitions, with Gravenberch third, having featured for 4,068 minutes.
With Liverpool returning to action after the international break against Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals before facing Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-final first leg.
The Reds will hope that their players do not report back for duty overexerted. And Koeman has suggested that there are several of the Netherlands’ players feeling ‘overtired’. The former Barcelona boss said via Voetbal International: 'That is not communicated directly to me. It goes from medical staff to medical staff. I do hear that quite a few players are a tad overtired.
“It is normal to take that into account, especially this week. But that is not the case for everyone. I am going to make more substitutions than I have done before. And by that I mean the substitutions between the two matches, not so much those eight substitutions.”
Speaking after Liverpool’s 2-1 loss against Brighton & Hove Albion, which was a blow for the Reds’ hopes of qualifying for the Champions League, head coach Arne Slot hoped that his players would not be overused by their respective nations. Slot said: “I think, but it's also something I'm going to ask our data department, that a lot of our players are in the top 10 in terms of playing minutes, because I have so many times had to play the same players because of the model we are having, because of the injuries we are having. We don't have a big squad, we always have to come back to the same players.
“But these same players today showed character because I thought I saw that all the ones that played Wednesday were still able to compete in the end. Maybe not as fresh as they were Wednesday but they didn't give up and that's an important asset to have for the last period of the season.”
Continue Reading