At the start of last month, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp followed Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in criticising their respective sides kick-off timings.
Last week, the Reds coach was once again critical about match timings in his pre-match press conference for the clash against Brighton & Hove Albion, which was scheduled at 12:30pm on Saturday.
“Today [Friday] is the only session we have but it is second day recovery [from Wednesday’s game] so there is no intensity, it is just tactical stuff because obviously Brighton play differently to Atalanta,” Klopp said on Friday.
“Tomorrow the difference is when you have 12.30 kick off you have the pre-match meal at 9am, which means pasta and all these kind of things at 9am. You get up at 7.30am and then we have a walk before breakfast, and then we have the pre-match meeting and then you play.”
With the Covid-19 pandemic delaying the start of the 2020/21 season, the fixture schedule will be more congested this term.
There is a risk of more players picking up injuries and the Merseyside club have already seen it this season with Klopp losing Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez to serious injuries, while James Milner has joined Naby Keita, Xherdan Shaqiri and Trent Alexander-Arnold in the treatment room.
Klopp saw his side seal a 1-0 win over Ajax on Tuesday and after the tie, the Dutch media spoke to Georginio Wijnaldum.
When discussing the number of injured players currently at Anfield, the midfielder told Veronica, as relayed by FcUpdate.nl: “I don’t really have anything to complain about. I am blessed to stay fit during this period.
“I hope I can hold on until the end of the season. That’s going to be very difficult, but I’m confident. It’s really just playing matches and resting at the moment. There’s not really any training because there’s not a lot of time for that.”
Liverpool’s next tie is against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday and then they travel to Denmark to take on FC Midtjylland in the Champions League tie next Wednesday.
