Martin Keown gave his firm backing to Jurgen Klopp’s previous complaints over Liverpool being given a disproportionately high number of Saturday 12:30 kick-offs straight after an international break.
Tomorrow’s derby against Everton will be the 13th time the Reds have been in that situation during the German’s eight-year reign at the club, with next month’s trip to Manchester City swiftly marking the 14th such occasion.
The next-most regular team given that particular shift after an international window are Tottenham, who’ve had it six times in the same period (The Mirror).
Speaking on talkSPORT, Keown said that Liverpool are within their rights to feel aggrieved over the scheduling quirk.
He stated: “Jurgen Klopp could be complaining that it’s another 12:30 game. Incidentally, I think he has a point in all of this. I think it’s something like 12 games now that they’ve played at 12:30 and the nearest club to them I think with five is Spurs after an international weekend.
“Why are they always picked upon to be the early kick-off game? In fact, we’ll see it again in a month’s time when they play Man City. It’ll be the 13th early kick-off after international weeks away.
“I do feel when players from all corners of the Earth are coming back together to form ‘Team Liverpool’ or ‘Team Arsenal’ or whatever, it is a little bit tricky. I have some sympathy there. If it doesn’t apply after European weeks, it shouldn’t be there after international weeks either.”
After Jim White and Simon Jordan challenged Keown on whether a few hours’ swing makes a sizeable difference, the ex-Arsenal defender replied: “It does. You don’t get it because you’ve not been a player. We don’t know how long it’s taken [Luis] Diaz to get back from Colombia, do we? When did he arrive back?
“That morning, that lie-in, the food that you have – you’re not having spaghetti Bolognese at 8 in the morning. You’re having it slightly later. I do sympathise with Liverpool. Why is it always Liverpool? It’s the 12th [sic] weekend that we’ve seen it.”
It’s inevitable that every Premier League club will have players away on international duty and that two of them will likely be affixed the Saturday 12:30 slot upon the squads reconvening.
However, the fact that Liverpool have it far more regularly than anyone else seems like more than a mere coincidence, and for someone like Keown – a former Everton player – to argue that we’re hard done by is quite telling.
You can view Keown’s comments below, via @talkSPORT on Twitter/X:
“Jurgen Klopp has a point! Why are they always picked? It makes a difference.” 😡
“Liverpool have had 12 early kick offs after internationals. The next is #THFC with 5!”
Martin Keown supports Jurgen Klopp for calling out #LFC’s repetitive early fixtures. pic.twitter.com/ql6ofXb6z4
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) October 20, 2023