‘We’ll injure players!’: Jurgen Klopp backs Ole Gunnar Solskjaer complaint over scheduling concern
The German is concerned about the workload experienced by players this term
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Your support makes all the difference.Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp believes his Manchester United counterpart Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had every right to vent his annoyance at the scheduling of fixtures, revealing he met with the Premier League to air similar grievances.
Trent Alexander-Arnold limped off during the defending champions’ 1-1 draw at Manchester City on Sunday, the latest in a long list of injury casualties across the division that is only expected to skyrocket with the heavy workload over a condensed period.
Solskjaer lost Luke Shaw to a hamstring issue in United’s 3-1 away victory against Everton, with Marcus Rashford and Victor Lindelof suffering knocks too.
The Norwegian used his post-match media duties to tear into the scheduling. "We were set up to fail,” he said.
“The kick-off time set us up to fail. We have been to Turkey, played loads of games this season already, we got back Thursday morning and we are playing Saturday lunchtime, it's an absolute shambles.”
And when Klopp was asked his thoughts about the issue, he responded: “Ole was right. City and us played on Tuesday, so there are always two teams who play Tuesday and two teams who play Wednesday.
“If the Tuesday teams are in contention now for the Saturday early kick off, that’s OK. It’s not nice but it’s OK.
“But the Wednesday teams should not even be in consideration for that game, just not.
“Sky, BT, Premier League, BBC, whoever – they have to talk. We cannot deal with that situation like we always did before. It’s very important the FA has to be involved.
“Tonight we lost Trent Alexander-Arnold and I’m pretty sure Gareth Southgate is not fine [with that]. If we continue like this and hopefully we can play a Euros in the summer, if they happen, let’s see who will be part of that, which players.
“Everybody needs to go on the table. It’s fine we found the solution to play on, that’s great, but now we cannot stop thinking. We have to start thinking new.”
Klopp detailed a discussion he had with the Premier League over the matter. “I spoke roundabout two weeks ago, the club organised for me a meeting and they told me ‘we cannot change it because it’s not about Man United, it’s not about Liverpool, it’s not about City.’
“Let me say it like this. We played after the last international break at 12.30 at Everton. My players were Wednesday night, some of them, at Peru. Then you play at 12.30. These kind of things should not happen.
“I understand 100 per cent the need of television, 100 per cent. But the Premier League needs to fulfil more the position of the unity of the players as well. Everything changed apart from the fixture list.
“Usually in a season we all have an October, November and then a very, very tricky December. This year, the October is like the December, the November is like the December and the December is still like the December. This intensity is really difficult. It’s completely normal that you play Saturday, it’s the 12.30 which is the killer.
“Tottenham played at Ludogorets on Thursday night and played today at 12.
“With all respect to West Brom, but Tottenham won it late because you need then much longer and all that stuff. People might like it and think, ‘OK, that’s a proper competition, it gives other teams a chance.’
“The only problem is we injure the players. We cannot keep the players fit with that. That’s really the problem. It’s not about us, it’s about the fixtures. We have to talk again about the five subs. If still, I don’t know, 14 teams say – I’m not sure they will say – that five subs shouldn’t happen, then at least let us sub five times when we play each other, the top six against each other.
“I have no idea if that is possible but we have to find solutions because it’s so tough this year. We get it, we want to play football 100 per cent with all we have – we need to play football, it’s great for the people, it’s great for us, everything is fine."
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