Jurgen Klopp cut an irritated figure when recently questioned about Liverpool’s difficulties handling 12:30pm kick-offs.
The German took out his ire on The Athletic’s James Pearce for what appeared, in all objectivity, to be a perfectly fair question in light of the club’s prior record.
Revisiting the subject ahead of a return to Premier League action this coming weekend, the 55-year-old made clear, in comments relayed on X by Paul Gorst, that it was difficult to completely ready his squad for the task ahead when playing a lunchtime fixture.
"You cannot get the boys up at 5am in the morning to make them 100% ready for the game. All these things are really difficult and the only thing I am asking for is all the TV stations help."
Jurgen Klopp clarified comments made around the 12.30pm slot.https://t.co/wMMdkxAGIb
— Paul Gorst (@ptgorst) September 22, 2023
Of course, the Liverpool boss’ frustrations are more than understandable when comparing situations across the English top-flight.
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“The trip to Wolves will be the 12th Saturday lunchtime kick-off Liverpool have had in the Premier League immediately following an international break during the German’s Anfield reign,” Pearce wrote last Friday for The Athletic. “That’s double the number faced by any other top-flight club.”
Liverpool are owed some fairness
Whilst we appreciate it will be difficult for all the relevant stakeholders involved to implement a 100% fair schedule that places equal demands across the top six – we shouldn’t be bearing the brunt of the flip side of the coin.
To have had double the number of 12:30pm slots compared to our competitors in England is… well, let’s not beat around the bush here… grossly unfair.
It’s encouraging that we’ve thus far managed to navigate such challenges admirably this term, but it’s not a hurdle we’re comfortable with seeing the club face after every international break, as will be the case once again after October when we welcome Everton to Anfield at 12:30pm on 21st October.