Klopp Talk: Early Season Start “Crazy”

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The boss isn’t happy about how soon things kick off.

If you count it as a competitive game, Liverpool’s season starts today. That’s just nine weeks since the Champions League final.

In that time, a large number of Liverpool players featured for their countries at the Africa Cup of Nations or the Copa America. And now it all starts again.

Jürgen Klopp thinks it’s far too fast.

“We had the last game in the Champions League Final on June 1 and now the first game of the new Premier League season. That doesn’t sound exactly like it should be to me. Who can have this idea? It’s crazy,” The Mirror report Klopp as saying.

“I would much prefer to have had the Sunday game [in the Premier League, whereas Liverpool kick off on Friday night] because that would have given us two more days of preparation. I see people are excited and looking forward to the new season - but no one worries about the problems.

“That’s why I have to mention them because no one else sees it.

“Our last game against Tottenham in the Champions league Final was three weeks after everybody played their last game in the Premier League.

“And I have a pre-season of problems with big tournaments in Brazil and Egypt which means Sadio Mane comes back to us after 16 days holiday.”

Additional quotes from BBC Sport paint him as even more frustrated with the Premier League adding that “I spoke to [Napoli manager] Carlo Ancelotti. Italy has 20 teams as well [like the Premier League] and starts its season on 24 August.

”Kalidou Koulibaly played with Sadio at the African Cup of Nations. He has four weeks’ holiday and is not even close to coming back.

”I don’t know why we start that early. The Premier League is such a wonderful product. It doesn’t make sense.”

It’s easy to understand Klopp’s frustration. Half the squad have not had a proper rest. But this is increasingly the reality of football. Something does need to structurally change, but the will for this just isn’t there.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com