Liverpool news: Jurgen Klopp questions Champions League and Nations League schedule
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez and Jordan Henderson could feature for England just five days after the Madrid final
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Your support makes all the difference.Jurgen Klopp has hit out at the timing of the Nations League finals and claimed player fatigue is the only thing that could ‘kill’ the game.
The Liverpool manager is concerned that on top of a gruelling season, the semi-final between England and Netherlands is on June 6, just five days after Liverpool and Tottenham meet in the Champions League final, with the Nations League final on June 9.
“We have had much more days off, on days I would never done before in my life as a manager, because the intensity was so high,” said Klopp.
“Then the 1st of June, we play a Champions League final, and on the 6th of June there is a wonderful tournament called the Nations Cup!
“Everybody looked at me when I said it was not such a good idea, and whoops!
“There are two teams in the Champions League final who are English, and if it had been a Dutch team it would have been the same.
“If we don’t learn to deal with our players in a better way, competition-wise, it’s the only chance to kill this wonderful game. Because without the players, it’s not a good one.
“But other people have to deal with that. It’s not Gareth’s (Southgate) fault, for planning something like this.”
Up to 15 players could be involved in both competitions. From Liverpool, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Jordan Henderson and possibly Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adam Lallana could be with the England squad, Virgil Van Dijk and Georginio Wijnaldum play for Holland and Xherdan Shaqiri is a regular with Switzerland, who contest the other semi-final with Portugal.
Up to seven Tottenham players could be selected. Kieran Trippier, Danny Rose, Eric Dier, Harry Winks, Dele Alli and Harry Kane are set to be selected in the Three Lions squad, while Vincent Janssen will be in the Dutch squad.
“Having a Champions League final and then a Nations Cup, it’s not good planning,” added Klopp. “If we would plan something like this, we would be surprised every weekend that there is another Premier League game!”
Attentions now turns to Sunday’s Premier League title decider, and Liverpool must beat Wolves in their final game and hope Manchester City lose or draw at Brighton to be champions for the first time in 29 years.
Klopp believes it will take another extraordinary effort to what they produced to beat Barcelona on Tuesday night for it to happen.
“How can we get 94 points without having a really special group? There are still two very important games to play, and we need exactly the same again,” he said.
Not surprisingly, he says motivation will not be a problem after beating all the odds to overturn a 3-0 deficit against Lionel Messi ad Co to reach the final.
“They (players) came in for recovery the day after and you needed a hammer to punch the smiles off our faces!” he said. “They had a day off [Thursday] and today we start again.”
Klopp is aware people assume their victory against seventh-placed Wolves is already a ‘given’. He stressed the importance of beating the Midlanders to keep their title dream alive.
“We think about Wolves. You get millions of messages and nobody speaks about the weekend,” he said.
“It doesn’t make Tuesday night’s achievement any smaller. It was for sure one of the best moments in football history, not only Liverpool. But it has nothing to do with the weekend except that we should be confident.
“Wolves want to show they are not passengers, they are a real football team. I respect that, and we have to be ready.”
Klopp also warned Liverpool fans not to start celebrating if they are winning, but only if Brighton are comfortably ahead against City.
“I would say, a little advice – our supporters should not celebrate the result of Brighton until it is 3-0 to Brighton with 87 or 88 minutes gone!” he said.
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