Jurgen Klopp was criticised by Sean Dyche in late December for his heavy interest in player welfare and has now attracted attention for Burnley’s postponed games.
Speaking with Sky Sports, the Clarets’ manager said in December: “The players have to be careful themselves because the welfare is off the scale for me, personally.
“There has to be a bit of balance to the bigger picture of comments about five subs, three subs, all the rest of it – and just be careful which road we’re going down.”
These festive words have now resurfaced as the club released a statement on their website about the upcoming game with Watford: ‘The decision was reluctantly made to submit the application due to a high number of injuries and Covid-19 cases within the squad‘.
The irony of our boss to call for fewer fixtures so that the players’ welfare is considered of higher importance and then for the manager who spoke out against him to be having games called off with injuries as a factor, is certainly not lost here.
The claret and blue side sit bottom of the table having played as many as six games less than others in the Premier League, perhaps if more interest in player welfare had been shown by their boss they would have been able to fulfill more of their fixtures…