Klopp confident of EPL completing its season
LIVERPOOL manager Juergen Klopp is optimistic about the chances of completing the English Premier League season as the championelect returned to training in small groups yesterday.
Klopp’s side was just two wins away from ending a 30-year wait to win the title when the English top-flight was shutdown more than two months ago due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Six positive cases of COVID19 were detected in the EPL’s first round of 748 tests of players and staff ahead of a return to socially-distanced training this week.
At the start of the outbreak, Klopp accepted football should be suspended if it would help save even one life. But the German believes it is now safe for players to return to phase one of training.
“I always said we don’t want to rush anything, but I don’t think it is rushed. It is for the first step, for this kind of social-distancing training,” Klopp told the Liverpool website.
“It was a long time, it is still ongoing, but the development is going with everything in the right direction and that helps. That football is closer to coming back I think is really a good sign for people as well.”
Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder is also heartened that just 0.8 percent of the tests carried out by the EPL resulted in positive cases. “A lot of people have been tested and the signs are encouraging,” said Wilder, whose side is in contention to qualify for European competition for the first time in its history.
Germany’s Bundesliga resumed its season behind closed doors last weekend, becoming the first major league to return to action.
The EPL’s target of restarting on June 12 has been called into question by players’ concern for their welfare, both from the threat of the virus and injuries with little preparation time after such a long layoff.
Newcastle United and England defender Danny Rose is angry at the restart plans, arguing that players are being treated like “guinea pigs or lab rats”.
Watford captain Troy Deeney says he will not return to training over fears he could pass the virus onto his five-month-old son.
Deeney is reportedly one of a number of Watford players who will not report to the club’s training ground this week after three of the six positive EPL cases were registered at the club.
“Of those three positive tests, one is a player and two are members of staff,” Watford said in a statement.
Burnley confirmed assistant manager Ian Woan, who is asymptomatic, as another case with two more from one other club yet to be revealed.
(AFP)