Vincent Kompany has appeared to lend his support to Jurgen Klopp regarding one of the Liverpool manager’s biggest grievances.
On more than one occasion this season, the German has spoken out strongly against the congested scheduling of fixtures, with the Reds being given a Saturday 12:30 kick-off straight after three consecutive international breaks in the autumn.
Furthermore, their 2-0 win at Burnley on Boxing Day was their fifth match in less than a fortnight, and their 10th in just 33 days.
Klopp’s counterpart at Turf Moor now seems to think that the 56-year-old may have a valid point in decrying the festive fixture pile-up.
Speaking to Amazon Prime Video Sport after his side’s defeat to Liverpool, Kompany said: “I’m starting to understand Jurgen. As a player I loved it. As a manager I get where Jurgen’s coming from.
“You do lose players in this period of time. It’s a difficult schedule to get everything right in terms of protecting the players and getting the performance out of them, but I’ve been in England long enough to also embrace it. Does it make sense? Not really, but I do enjoy it still.”
Klopp has been pilloried by some pundits in England for his comments about the fixture schedule that Liverpool have had to negotiate, which in turn has seen numerous Reds players succumb to injury, but he’s far from alone in being affected in that regard.
The casualty lists at Tottenham, Manchester United, Chelsea and Brentford all run into double figures (Premier Injuries), and even the manager of the team with the fewest absences in the Premier League right now (Kompany’s Burnley with two) has spoken about the difficulties of keeping squads fresh at this time of year.
It’s no coincidence that several clubs have had to contend with top-heavy treatment rooms this season, with players getting precious little chance for a breather amid a relentless schedule which included a World Cup this time last year and several continental tournaments in 2024.
UEFA and FIFA haven’t helped matters with their imminent expansions of the Champions League and Club World Cup respectively, with footballers’ welfare being shoved further down the list of considerations for the sport’s powerbrokers.
Hopefully more managers and players will speak out against the ever-congested workload before a harmful tipping point is reached.
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