Steve Nicol tells Jurgen Klopp to stop complaining about Liverpool’s tight fixture scheduling
Jurgen Klopp has been told by Steve Nicol that he should ‘stop complaining’ about Liverpool getting a tight schedule. This comes after the German has made it a point to claim that the Reds haven’t been handed a suitable date to play against Southampton after their FA Cup final win.
The Reds played out a tiring 120 minutes against Chelsea at Wembley on Saturday and now face Southampton in a must-win Premier League game three days later. But for Nicol, this is the price of being successful. Speaking on ESPN FC (h/t Express), he said:
“Does he really want to turn round and ask the FA to help Liverpool? You’d hear every other man and his dog complaining that they’re going out of their way. Look, if you’re as good as they are and as successful as they are, you’re going to have a heavy schedule”
Nicol, who played for Liverpool between 1981 and 1994, winning one European Cup in the process, claims that the situation was exactly the same back in the 1980s and that Klopp is not a ‘special case’.
“It was the exact same in the 80s. You’re not a special case because you do well, you shouldn’t expect anybody to look after you, so I don’t know why you go complaining.”
Who is right?
It is tough to take sides here because both these Liverpool icons make sense in their own way. Klopp can certainly use an extra 24 hours here and there for games when it comes to his team recovering from intense games.
But that would then mean taking away those 24 hours from their game after that. However, it does seem odd that Chelsea, who played the final against us, play their next league game on Thursday night while we play ours tonight. Both these teams then end the PL season on 22nd May.
It is a fine balance to achieve and while, of course, the 2019 UEFA Champions League winners could have been handed a schedule to balance their workload better, this is indeed the price of being successful.
The Reds would have astonishingly played every single game they could this season by the end of May- a feat rare in football. Mid-week games would be the name of the game once you start competing for four trophies a season.
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It is a headache which is almost a luxury to have. How Manchester United fans would be wishing it was their manager instead of Klopp complaining about fixture congestion right now ahead of a possible quadruple.
