State of the Nation is in good shape... it is Klopp’s senseless view of this brave, new world that needs to change
World Cup. What is not to like? No revolving door of substitutes, referees applying the law properly, Eric Dier banjoing Sergio Ramos, the Germans imploding.
If Klopp wants to know what a “senseless” competition looks like, try the International Champions Cup, in which, er, Liverpool played three games in six days last summer.
To be fair, Klopp actually considers the Nations League a very good idea and only calls it “senseless” because he believes the football calendar has no room for it. Room for an International Champions Cup, but not for a Nations League.
He might have a point about the demands on players, but why should international football have to make Crystal Palace, a week today. Three games in six days should have been three in eight.
But Emery (right) has not bleated about it and relishes the challenge this week will bring for his in-form team.
The more you see of him, the more impressive he comes across. the concessions if a crowded calendar is to be decluttered? If UEFA have got the Nations League right, they have got the interminable Europa League wrong. The Champions League group stages throw up some decent games, but it can still be a tortuous and predictable process. And let’s not start on the Carabao Cup. Representing your country means a lot to players and doing it in a competitive fixture makes it mean even more. Obviously, there is an English giddiness in the aftermath of a great victory in Spain. But the Nations League is a competition – albeit one whose working few understand or bother to try and understand – that gives an Well said, Shilts. incentive and purpose to national teams that are normally just cannon-fodder. In Group D3, Kosovo have won two and drawn two, their incentive is to get promoted to League C, where they will be able to test themselves at a slightly higher standard next time around.
In the meantime, when qualification for Euro 2020 begins in March, they will have some sort of momentum.
Klopp would hardly stand alone among club managers if the basis of his reasoning was an antipathy towards international football outside the main tournaments and the qualification for them.
He was probably against the friendlies that have been replaced by the Nations League.
We all get the self-interest of club managers. But the Nations League has already been a success, with players and with the fans (when they are allowed in).
And Klopp needs to wake up and smell the coffee.
THERE were many encouraging aspects of an international double-header that most thought England would find incredibly difficult. One that has gone under the radar is that Marcus Rashford, despite those misses in Rijeka, is maturing into an invaluable asset for Gareth Southgate (right, with the Manchester United striker). He has scored three goals in his last four England games and regularly poses a threat. Southgate’s coaching and tactics have a lot to do with that. If Jose Mourinho did not have such a colossal ego, he might ask Southgate for tips.