Jurgen Klopp’s Saturday post match interview will go down in history as one of the Premier League’s most infamous. It was his second heated post match interview in succession. Jurgen Klopp also ranted about the fixtures after beating Leicester 3 – 0 last week.
James Milner sustained a hamstring injury in the 1 – 1 draw against Brighton, prompting another diatribe from Jurgen Klopp.
Klopp appeared to blame the injury on the broadcaster’s, referring to BT Sport’s Des Kelly as ‘you’ in venting his frustrations.
Read: Concussion Protocols Continue To Endanger Health of Players
It appears he wants to accelerate the discussion around reintroducing 5 substitutions to help with the condensed Covid-19 schedule.
“Oh no, but you work for them. Yeah. Hamstring. Surprise. And they had injuries as well. Because it’s a tough time. But ask [Sheffield United manager] Chris Wilder how we can avoid that,” said Jurgen Klopp.
“So if you can’t do five subs in a game like this… it’s not for tactical reasons… for example, today, five subs, I take off Robbo [Andy Robertson]. 100 per cent. And bring Kostas Tsimikas on, to save Robbo. Not to make our game better or whatever, just to save him. That’s the situation. It’s not about we changed tactics and the system and stuff like this, and bring on five players at one time and all these kind of things. It’s not like this, it’s just to save the players. Yes of course I save my players but it’s about all… it’s not only my players that have a problem. Here you will see, from now on until December you will see it and we will see what happens.”
Read: Diego Maradona – A Tribute From Someone Who Doesn’t Remember Him
Klopp has a point. We will see more players than usual felled by injury this year. However, reintroducing 5 substitutions isn’t likely to solve that now. The fact that players had virtually no preseason is to blame. As well as that, James Milner is getting on a bit. It’s no surprise to see him get a hamstring injury.
Liverpool have a better squad than anyone and sit top of the Premier League. When you take that into account, it’s hard to feel sorry for Liverpool or their manager. Klopp knows the biggest threat to his title defence is another couple of injuries. As such, he will seek to gain any kind of advantage he can. His rants about the fixtures date back to last season, before the pandemic. He still managed to win the league. After publicly taking aim at the authorities, he won’t be getting much sympathy from them now.
