Juergen is spitting fire
SCHEDULE: GROWING CHORUS BY MANAGERS TO REVIEW FIXTURE ALLOCATIONS
Liverpool’s ever expanding injury list has prompted Juergen Klopp to take on the football authorities and broadcasters over a gruelling schedule that he feels is doing little to protect the players.
The English champions head into today’s Champions League clash against Ajax without Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita, Xherdan Shaqiri, Trent Alexander-Arnold and James Milner.
Klopp was infuriated that Liverpool were chosen for Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off in a 1-1 draw at Brighton just over 60 hours after they faced Atalanta in Europe on Wednesday night.
“After Wednesday, Saturday at 12.30 is really dangerous for the players,” said Klopp, who also sarcastically congratulated a BT Sport interviewer for Milner’s hamstring injury in the second half.
However, he is not alone and has formed an unlikely alliance with Manchester United and Manchester City, who have also faced early Saturday kick-offs after Wednesday night games in the Champions League this season.
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said his side had been “set up to fail” when they won at Everton after returning from a trip to Turkey barely 48 hours before they travelled to Goodison Park.
City boss Pep Guardiola has also been a strong advocate of allowing managers the chance to make five substitutions.
“All around the world there is five substitutions. Here we believe we are a special league with just three players, we don’t protect the players,” said Guardiola after his side’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool earlier this month that characterised the problems of a condensed calendar.
Both sides chased the game in an enthralling first 45 minutes before settling for a point as fatigue set in after the break.
“We’ve reached a point where you start to think that with so many matches and so many injuries, the spectacle is not the same,” said Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane last week.
Despite losing a month of the season due to a late start to the campaign caused by the threemonth coronavirus shutdown last season, barely any sacrifices have been made in English football to ease the strain on players.
Both domestic cup competitions have been retained alongside a full 38-game Premier League season, European football commitments and two international breaks, with an extra game for European nations.
Guardiola has repeatedly argued that the gruelling winter schedule in England when other major leagues take a mid-season break comes at the expense of better quality matches for fans to enjoy.
And he believes that is only exacerbated in a season so far without fans inside the ground.
“The problem is today the players lose the joy of playing football. Before it was nice playing football once or twice a week with spectators, now it is in three days another one.” –