David Moyes has suggested that Liverpool benefitted from an ‘unfair’ situation which affected his West Ham side during the most recent round of Premier League fixtures.
Mo Salah scored twice for the Reds on Monday night in his final game for us before jetting off to the Africa Cup of Nations, for which clubs were compelled to release players the following day.
The FIFA ruling meant that the Irons had to do without Mohammed Kudus and Nayef Aguerd for their 0-0 draw against Brighton on Tuesday, and their manager was understandably furious over the scheduling of that match.
Speaking after the game, Moyes raged (via The Mirror): “For some reason we weren’t allowed to play our players when Salah played for Liverpool last night. It feels a bit strange that we’re playing on January 2. Could we not have played on the 1st so our African players would be allowed to play as well?
“I feel that’s something which isn’t correct. I just think why couldn’t we have our African players the same as everybody else? I don’t see at this point why you would play a game and be disadvantaged by some of your players not being able to play.”
Let’s be clear – Moyes isn’t having a pop at Liverpool here, but rather those tasked with scheduling Premier League fixtures who gave West Ham the latest possible kick-off slot during the most recent matchday.
Indeed, Jurgen Klopp would likely have plenty of sympathy for his Irons counterpart, given how often the Reds have been done dirty by having a Saturday 12:30 match immediately after an international break.
With New Year’s Day being a public holiday, the Hammers’ game against Brighton could easily have been played on Monday afternoon or evening, and we’d have been raging had the fixture schedule deprived us of Salah against Newcastle.
From a Liverpool perspective, we can then be thankful that we still had the Egyptian available to face the Magpies. Without his brace of goals, we’d have been held to a third consecutive Anfield draw in the top flight.
As for the Premier League fixture gods, Moyes’ justifiable complaints should be taken into account for future reference, and we’d venture to suggest that Klopp would very much empathise with him.
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