Jurgen Klopp complaints fall on deaf ears as Liverpool handed brutal 10-game schedule

Liverpool will play a match every 3.9 days between now and their final fixture before the Premier League is paused in November for the World Cup to take place in Qatar

Liverpool will play 10 games in just 32 days later this year, despite Jurgen Klopp’s complaints about the hectic schedule.

 

Klopp often complains about Liverpool’s gruelling fixture list, with his team playing a remarkable 63 games last term. This season is expected to be even tougher due to a World Cup taking place in Qatar between November and December.

 

Liverpool’s busy schedule was confirmed after the Champions League draw on Thursday evening, which saw them pitted against Napoli, Ajax and Rangers – a relatively easy group. Despite avoiding the competition’s biggest teams, another Klopp rant is expected.

 

The Reds will play five games in 16 days next month – including away trips to Everton and Chelsea. After the international break, they will play 10 games in 32 days – with challenging fixtures against Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham on the horizon.

 

All in all, Liverpool have 20 games to play – including Saturday afternoon’s thrashing of Bournemouth at Anfield – before their campaign grinds to a halt on November 12. That means 20 games in just 78 days, a match every 3.9 days.

 

Klopp voiced his frustration with the schedule in July. “Normally, our pre-season is the basis for the rest of the season,” said the German. “This time, we have the first part of the season, then it’s interrupted.

If you would have asked me three years ago if I could expect something like that, OK with the World Cup it was clear, but we are already kind of used to it because of the pandemic. We had breaks, then we started again, so it’s not completely new to us anymore.”

 

Klopp was perplexed by the Premier League’s decision to resume playing just eight days after the World Cup final on December 26, with a trip to Aston Villa pencilled in. “The World Cup is, for all top teams in world football, pretty much the same, especially in England the same, because we play immediately [after],” he adde

 

“If you are in the final or if you play for third place, then you play a week later football again. Then you play [December] 26th, 31st, 2nd and stuff like this. Obviously the guys in the Premier League like the spectacle. We’ve said it now often enough, nobody really cares about the players in these moments, but it’s how it is.

 

Speaking last September, Klopp moaned: There is no other sport in the world with such a relentless calendar. No physical sport. There are more demanding sports like athletics and marathons but they don’t run 20 or 30 or 40 a year. We all know why it’s happening.

 

“Whatever people say that it’s about giving different countries opportunities, in the end it’s all about money, that’s how it is. That’s fine. But in the end, at one point somebody has to start understanding that without the players – the most important ingredients of this wonderful game – we cannot play it. Nobody is more important than the players.”

Klopp added: “They don’t care, they just don’t care. It’s always one main interest, and all the rest is not interesting. There must be a point when all the confederations sit together and start thinking about the game and not only about their benefit.