Jurgen Klopp has argued that TV companies don’t care about player welfare after his side were given another punishing early kick-off on their return from international duty.
Liverpool had six 12.30pm Saturday starts last season and didn’t win a single one of them, taking just three points from 18 – and Klopp described the situation as “a joke”. The German boss pointed to the fact that he faces another early Premier League game, with his large South American contingent returning from international duty on Friday morning, just a couple of hours before the squad departed for the visit to Wolves.
Incredibly, the trip to Wolves will be the 12th Saturday lunchtime kick-off Liverpool have had immediately after an international break since he arrived at Anfield, three times as many as Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have faced in the same period.
And he said on Friday: “If I say a word about it then the world says, ‘He’s moaning again’. It is a joke. We had four players in South America who I haven’t even seen yet. In 24 hours we play Wolves.
“We have four international breaks by March and for two of them we already have the 12.30 kick-off (immediately afterwards). But we cannot change it. We will never change that, whoever we talk to.
“Now the TV channel has a different name, but obviously it doesn’t change anything at all. They don’t give a… so why should I talk about that? We didn’t think about it.”
Klopp had four key players in Alisson, Alexis Mac Allister, Darwin Nunez, and Luis Diaz all flying back into the UK as late as 9am on Friday. And he explained he is not against the 12.30 Saturday kick off as a whole, just when they come so soon after a midweek fixture.
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He added :”It’s not a problem if you have a normal week, we’ve always said that – It’s easy to adapt, the only problem is lack of recovery time.”
Indeed, Klopp has made no secret of his feelings on early kick-offs and previously said back in April: “It’s just not OK. If we play a Champions League semi-final, if you find another league in the world and another broadcaster where they put one team who is in the semi-final, might be two, might be three English teams, on a 12.30… what?
“What are you doing? Why would you do that? So that’s why it’s so difficult [to win four trophies], but nothing happens because nobody cares.” He then added: “The league and the broadcaster really have to try at least to help. We will see. I haven’t heard anything yet. Nobody from BT contacted me yet.”
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