Micah Richards is the latest former player to pitch in on the issue of added substitutions, making clear his opposition to Jurgen Klopp’s suggestion to bring back five subs to the Premier League.
The Englishman was speaking to Football Focus (via HITC) ahead of Liverpool’s upcoming tie with Wolves, highlighting the available quality at the Reds’ disposal.
“It’s still unfair to the bottom teams,” Richards argued. “I don’t care what way you look at it. It’s still unfair to the bottom teams if you have that amount of quality that can come off the bench.”
We’re not sure if Richards has been keeping a particularly close eye on the club’s recent matchday squads, with Klopp forced to field three Academy graduates in the first XI for the 1-0 win against Ajax, and two in the prior 1-1 stalemate at Brighton.
The available bench did, on both occasions, admittedly include a swathe of established stars from Sadio Mane to Bobby Firmino.
However, Klopp wasn’t resting some of his top professionals for the sake of arrogance, the decision was based on the one thing he’s been banging on about all season – player safety.
It’s something the German has bizarrely come under fire for speaking about, even despite all of the evidence stacked up behind him.
Though Liverpool have suffered much misfortune of late, the return of Trent and Keita signals a light at the end of the tunnel for this beleaguered Reds side.
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Overexcitable, overweight and career over long before it started.