Jurgen Klopp has stressed out again at the criticism of festive fixtures. Liverpool were initially scheduled to play two games in a span of three days.
An increased number of Covid cases in Leeds’ camp led to postponing the fixture. And Liverpool now heads to East Midland to face Leicester.
The Reds have had their own Covid issues recently with Virgil Van Dijk, Fabinho, Thiago, and Jones all testing positive. But Klopp has confirmed are four of them are back in time for their clash with Leicester.
The German has previously clearly shown his displeasure on busy Christmas fixtures and clearly spoken against it. With Leeds’s game originally scheduled to be on 26th and Leicester on 28th, Klopp believes it’s completely unfair.
During the Pre-Leicester press conference, Klopp says:
The situation should not be like this and we can discuss this every year,
It’s tradition and we want to play on Boxing Day, we could have played on Boxing Day and that would have been no problem at all.
But playing on the 26th and the 28th is just not right, I just say that because it’s true and I think we can find solutions for that. It’s not that difficult to play football in a slightly different way. The 26th and the 29th, where’s the problem?
It would just help the players, even without Covid, and the problem is now some teams definitely have a proper Covid problem at the moment and you rush a smaller group of players through two games. You need luck in these moments and you should not need luck.
We do not stop discussing it because if we don’t discuss it, it just stays like this. Maybe it stays like this anyway but the players need help and help needs to come from other areas.
But surely, there are people who seem to be losing the message Jurgen Klopp is putting out. The Anfield boss isn’t against getting rid of the festive period.
Instead, Klopp is stating that matches can be broadened out much better. The expansion of matches will ultimately suit both players’ health and keep the tradition alive.
Klopp voice out in support of introduction of additional two substitutions after tight festive fixtures schedule
Recently, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel spoke about the introduction of five substitutions after Blue’s victory on Boxing Day.
The Reds boss expressed his favour of moving back to five substitutes. But he doubts it would get approved by Premier League as some clubs are resistant to the idea, believing it benefits bigger teams.
Asked about Tuchel’s comments, Klopp responded:
Yes. We have to put competition aside and don’t say (Manchester) City has better subs than Southampton or we have better subs than Burnley or whatever.
That’s probably true whatever that means exactly. It’s Premier League and can still cause us problems.
The problem is this intensity for a top-class footballer is definitely at the edge.
Klopp also added:
The decision needs 14 votes to change it and that’s something wrong. As example, Burnley not sure how many players have international football when we have three games – they have no games.
So we talk about an issue some clubs definitely have, some players definitely have but it’s decided by other teams.
And because we make a competition of it you know it will be “no they are better than us” and stuff like this, it’s a real problem because it’s the right decision especially in this moment.
You bring players back after Covid infection or injury and with amount of games you play you need to play them straight away.
This wonderful game is so wonderful because usually the players are in good shape, well trained and recovered and go for it. The best league in the world and the most intense league in the world is the only league in Europe, maybe the world with three subs.
With the likes of Virgil Van Dijk, Fabinho, Thiago, and Jones are back in training and in contention of Leicester trip, Klopp revealed an unnamed young player and two staff members are isolating.
