Fixture demands too tough on players in these hard times, says Klopp
LONDON: Liverpool managser Jurgen Klopp launched another impassioned assault on the fixtures scheduling after the 3-0 win over Leicester on Sunday evening.
Klopp’s target, in an interview with Sky TV, was the television companies rather than the clubs – including his own – who had signed off on the broadcasting contracts.
Liverpool play Atalanta in the Champions League on Wednesday and then Brighton in the Premier Leaggue on Saturday at 12:30 GMT.
He said: “It is really difficult for the players. The rest is just a decision on a desk in an office. Sky and BT have to talk. If we keep playing on Wednesday and Saturday 12:30 I am not sure if we will finish the season with 11 players.”
Klopp added: “The contracts were not made for a Covid season. You stand here with the facemask, we adapt. Everything changed but the contract with the broadcasters is still ‘nope, we have this so we keep this’. What? Everything changed. The whole world changed.”
This week will be the third out of four occasions the Reds have played on the Saturday after a Champions League game, although this is the first at lunchtime.
Klopp, Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and Manchester United counterpart Ole Gunnar Solskjaer have all criticised the TV timings in recent weeks.
He said: “I am discussing this completely calm. They say I talk about Liverpool. I don’t, I talk about the football players out there.
“Yesterday, [Barcelona’s Gerard] Pique – massive knee injury – today maybe [Arsenal’s Bukayo] Saka, I’m not sure but it looked like a knee injury. He played all three games for England in the international break.
“People tell us to rotate but who? We have offensive players we could rotate but the rest are kids.”
Klopp has also previously said he was “slightly concerned” about the amount of travelling his players had to do during international breaks.
In the 71 days since Liverpool’s season started on 12 September, the Reds have played 15 matches – with two international breaks in that time.
They have played a game – in either the EFL Cup or Champions League – in every midweek outside international weeks since 20 September.
Klopp said: “We will show up there [Brighton] and we will be shaking. I think about sending the points, that is how it is because we go there and we lose the game.”
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