Liverpool fans may well be nodding in agreement with a plea made by former Everton defender Michael Ball following last weekend’s Merseyside derby.
The Reds ran out 2-0 winners on Saturday lunchtime, although the result wasn’t the only thing leaving the 44-year-old dissatisfied.
The match was given the 12:30 slot for live coverage on TNT Sports, with that kick-off time immediately after the international break previously drawing the ire of Jurgen Klopp, and he’s not the only one with issues over the scheduling.
In his latest column for the Liverpool Echo, Ball wrote: “I was at the game and was disappointed the moment I found out it was a 12:30pm kick-off. This early start time is something Jurgen Klopp and other managers have had plenty to say about when discussing the schedule of their respective sides and it’s not only an annoyance to players and coaching staff.
“Giving this slot to the Merseyside derby was an absolute killer and I hope it doesn’t happen again. There is a lot of talk around TV times, whether it’s Sky Sports or TNT, and while it is brilliant when you are watching these games at home, these decisions by big companies are taking away from the experience of the match-going fan.
“The atmosphere was so flat on Saturday, to the point where it felt like a pre-season game or charity match. Both sets of fans were not really at their best. You go to derby games and you expect a huge atmosphere because of the excitement and the nerves and there was just nothing.
“This slot is not working and this has to be looked at by the people who control the TV picks. A game of this magnitude should not be starting so early in the day.”
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Ball makes a very fair point here – the atmosphere at Anfield on Saturday did seem unusually muted for a Merseyside derby, despite Dominik Szoboszlai talking it up after his first in-person experience of the fixture.
Games between Liverpool and Everton should be positively crackling from the stands, and that sense just seemed to be lacking at the weekend.
It’s common practice in the UK for derbies to be scheduled for an early kick-off on request by police, given the potential for disorder among some spectators in attendance, but thankfully the Merseyside affair doesn’t have a history of large-scale trouble between the two sets of supporters.
It therefore wouldn’t seem a necessity to pencil it in for lunchtime in order to mitigate that particular worry among the authorities, and any fan of the two clubs involved who’ve attended a derby under lights would surely speak highly of the atmosphere that can generate.
Liverpool are due to visit Goodison Park on the weekend of 16/17 March, which falls after a Europa League gameweek that’ll involve the Reds should they top their group, which they’re currently on course to do.
That’d at least mean the reverse fixture doesn’t get the Saturday 12:30 treatment, and in what could be the final derby at Everton’s current home before their move to Bramley-Moore Dock, imagine what an occasion it’d be if it were an evening or nighttime clash.
#Ep94 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️