Jurgen Klopp feels like he’s alone in complaining about fixtures this season.
After playing an FA Cup final against Chelsea on Saturday, that lasted 120 minutes, with a Premier League clash against Southampton tonight, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp does have more of a reason than most to complain about how tight the gap between fixtures has been this season.
Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool have most notably felt the pressure with an obscene amount of games due to FA Cup, Carabao Cup, Champions League and Premier League fixtures, and that’s before we mention players heading off to represent their countries.
This all happened in a season where Covid concerns pushed for half-fit teams to play, an issue Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel had taken great issue with.
Even with all the success that’s come with it, Klopp feels like he’s better off complaining because he won’t be heard otherwise.
“It’s better you moan and argue when you’ve won something than when you lose, that’s why I use that opportunity,” said Klopp ahead of his Southampton clash.
“There are two more matchdays this week. Obviously, we played Saturday where it was always possible we’d play 120 minutes and they thought the best day for us to play the next game was Tuesday. You could have given us the Wednesday theoretically.”
After pondering whether that was possible or not, Klopp was reminded about the Europa League final being on at that stage and joked the flexibility wasn’t possible because of his ‘UEFA friends.’
Even with that, Klopp would have preferred having a game closer to his 90-minute fixture on Sunday than last Saturday’s 120.
“Thursday we could have played a 90-minute game and on Sunday which is the last matchday but nobody thought ‘we can give them a day more of rest.’”
Klopp has a point about fixture congestion but he could be naive if he truly believes that nobody cares. With plenty of media coverage and other managers like Tuchel speaking out frequently, he’s definitely not alone.
“It’s the whole time like this and I have to sit here and say it. People say, ‘when does he stop whining?’ Because nobody else is doing it. You all don’t think about it for a second.
“120 minutes and then Tuesday… come on. That’s really massive.”
It also seemed like the perfect time for Klopp to smirk and driop a hint that he mightn’t be starting his best 11 tonight.
“The boys who will start the game will go with all they have to make it happen.”
