Paddy Kenny fears Liverpool will pay the price for postponed fixtures
Ex- Leeds United goalkeeper Paddy Kenny, speaking to Football Insider (h/t Liverpool Echo) sounded concerned for Liverpool after two of the Reds’ games stood postponed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Liverpool’s fixtures against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea stand deferred and the dates for the postponed fixtures haven’t been out in the public domain yet. Kenny believes that a tighter schedule towards the end of the season might cause fatigue for the players and that could see the season “fall apart” for the Reds.
Kenny tracked back to his time with Sheffield United and looked back upon the 2002/03 season wherein the Blades reached the semi-finals of both, the league cup and the FA Cup. The team had to play in the Playoffs in the Championship towards the end of the season, and in Kenny’s words, the players were “goosed” and that ended up with the Blades losing 3-0.
“The second half of the season is when the nitty gritty games are played. You don’t want games racking up at that point because it can have a major effect. I’ve been there. I remember at Sheffield United during the 2002/03 season, we got to the FA Cup and League Cup semi-finals.”
“At the back end of the season, when it came to playoffs, we were goosed, it took its toll and we ended up losing 3-0. If it’s like that for Liverpool, which it might be because they are a brilliant side, then you fear for them because they could fall apart.”
How can fatigue affect the Reds?
Liverpool, coincidentally, played all games possible last season and that could be one of the reasons that this season has seen a shaky start from the players. Fatigue can have its toll on players and this could be an issue for the same.
On a positive note though, Liverpool got back to winning ways against Ajax in the UEFA Champions League after a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Napoli. The next time the Reds will feature in any competitive game is on 1st October, against Brighton and Hove Albion in the Premier League.
With the World Cup also scheduled in November this year, this just increases the number of games the players have to go through and shall certainly give rise to a number of players complaining about fatigue. With UEFA also scheduling the Champions League and Europa League in such a way that all fixtures are done before the first week of November, it just makes life for the players much more difficult.
Kenny believes that the Reds might need to sacrifice the FA Cup if they need to pose a challenge for the title in the Premier League and the Champions League.
“ It depends how well they do in the cups, they might put them on the backburner because they can’t afford to play strong teams in the FA Cup. It’s a sacrifice but they need to be challenging for the likes of the Premier League and Champions League.”
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Liverpool’s backroom staff must carefully manage their players’ workload once the World Cup begins since they will have an extremely busy schedule. However, we can only hope that the players are fit and get results for the club and country.
