Jurgen Klopp shared with reporters gathered at his pre-match presser his distate for the international break in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The German appeared to suggest that Liverpool may look to prevent their own players from leaving for international duty, with a sharp reminder that “the players are paid by the clubs”.
"We cannot make every FA happy and the players are paid by the clubs. That means we are first priority. You cannot make everyone happy. We are not 100% clear were everyone plays, so whole situation…we wait til the last second pretty much. We cannot influence it."
— Paul Gorst (@ptgorst) March 3, 2021
With the pandemic far from under control across the globe, the Reds boss does have a point when it comes to the upcoming international break.
While we understand that, with the World Cup expected to go ahead as planned in 2022, there is a certain amount of pressure to get the qualifications out of the way.
However, given the pressing crisis on our hands, one might fairly question why we couldn’t postpone the international competition to the next year when there will be a greater guarantee of the pandemic having been overcome globally.
It comes across as the height of stupidity for such fixtures to carry on as planned, and we at the EOTK would fully back Klopp and any other club manager that chooses to withhold their international players from the qualifiers in light of the enormous risk.