Four senior Liverpool players could still join the USA tour in the next two weeks

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Liverpool have touched down in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as they begin their ten day tour of the USA.

The Reds are scheduled to play three games in three different cities in the US as they ramp up their pre-season preparations.

For some players, they will now be edging ever closer to being ready for the new campaign. Some of the Liverpool squad have been working with Arne Slot for almost three weeks already.

For others, their journey to full Premier League match fitness is at an earlier stage. As a result of the summer international tournaments, Liverpool are having to deal with their biggest stars returning in dribs and drabs.

Because of this, Slot’s group who flew to America on Tuesday had an incredibly youthful feeling to it.

Four hopeful of joining Liverpool tour

28 players were aboard the plane which took Liverpool from Merseyside to Stateside on Tuesday.

Of that pretty large group, around half were what you’d call ‘senior’ first-team players. And that’s including the likes of Sepp van den Berg and Fabio Carvalho.

For the rest, it is vital that they take their chance to impress Slot. While the bigger names are away there should be reasonable chances for everyone.

According to the Liverpool ECHO, though, there could be a bit of a time limit on those opportunities.

READ MORE: Two players miss out on Liverpool’s USA pre-season tour with injury

They claim that Slot’s squad could be bolstered by the arrivals of four true first-teamers during their stay in America.

Alisson Becker and Diogo Jota are reportedly the ‘next in line’ to return. Both Brazil and Portugal went out of the Copa America and Euro 2024 respectively at the quarter-final stage.

There is no date given for when Alisson and Jota could be expected to join up, but it’s claimed that Slot is ‘hopeful’ of having both players available while Liverpool are away.

It’s also claimed that Ibrahima Konate and Ryan Gravenberch could come into the fold during the tour, too. Both players made it to the Euros semi-finals with their nations but neither played a second during the tournament.

Who else is still away?

It would be a real bonus if Liverpool could get this quartet up and running before they leave the USA. Gravenberch, Konate and Jota in particular are really in need of a good pre-season.

Alisson is Alisson, but it’s also worth pointing out that Liverpool have a new goalkeeping coach with new methods who has joined over the summer.

The more time the Brazilian has to get used to Fabian Otte ahead of the campaign, the better.

With four reportedly due to return, that still leaves seven Liverpool players who continue to be off-duty.

All of Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and Alexis Mac Allister will join up when the Reds return to the AXA Training Centre. That’s a huge amount of talent to come back in.