Liverpool: Klopp vents frustration at Sky and BT for crazy fixtures pile-up
Liverpool's manager says playing twice a week to comply with television broadcasting contracts during a pandemic makes no sense. "The world has changed".
A heavily-depleted Liverpool welcomed Leicester to Anfield on Sunday. The hosts were without Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Rhys Williams, Jordan Henderson, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mohamed Salah but somehow managed to pull off a 3-0 with goals from Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino. Jürgen Klopp however, felt he had to make his feelings clear about the crazy schedule not just his team has been forced to follow - but many others around Europe - one which is causing injury and selection problems right across the board.
Keita, the latest Liverpool player to fall injured
Klopp, who lost another player, Naby Keita to a hamstring injury last night, blames the fixtures pile-up on the commitments which clubs have to television programming. The final part of his post-match interview with Sky was not shown live in the UK.
"It was never about us when I talked about it, it was about all the players. If you don't start talking to BT we are all done. Sky and BT have to talk because if we keep playing on Wednesday and Saturday at 12:30, I'm not sure if we will finish the season with 11 players. I know you [television companies] don't care and that's the problem. We've discussed it for a long time and nothing's happened," he explained. "I don't talk about Liverpool, I talk about all the football players out there. Yesterday, Piqué, massive knee injury; today, Saka, maybe, I'm not sure, a knee injury - he played all three games for England during the international break. Now people tell us to rotate players but who? We have some offensive players but the rest are kids. It's a massive problem. Wednesday and Saturday 12:30 is a broadcaster problem and nothing else. We play against Atalanta on Wednesday and then 12:30 on Saturday against Brighton.
"If someone tells me again about contracts I'll go really nuts. Because these contracts aren't made for a Covid season," the Reds boss continued. “We all have to adapt. Everything's changed, but the contracts with the broadcasters is still: 'We have this, so we keep this'. What? Everything changed, the whole world has changed!"
Ten matches in five weeks
Between now and the end of the year, Liverpool have 10 games to get through between the Premier League and the Champions League.