Jurgen Klopp has taken a separate shot at TNT Sports, declaring that he will never watch the channel again in the future and has asked them to remove him from their subscriber list.
Liverpool’s manager joked that Amnesty International should get involved as he believes it is a crime to schedule their games at 12.30pm on Saturdays and claimed his team were the fastest at the World Games. What is the direction of the matches?
Klopp has long been a critic of BT Sport – TNT’s predecessor – which regularly schedules Liverpool in Saturday’s early kick-off slot and from Thursday’s away game at Atlanta to Wednesday night’s Merseyside derby. Wally had highlighted their recent run of fixtures, leading up to Sunday’s match at Fulham. And the first game on Saturday, when they drew 2-2 at West Ham to effectively end their title challenge.
Klopp believes the schedule is crazy and has blamed the broadcasters – although he has laughingly offered to become a pundit on TNT in the future as he said: “I watch a lot of football around the world, The Premier League is the best league in the world, so it’s easy to overdo it It may not be realized after all, but someone needs to help people.
“I had a conversation the other day with the guys at our favorite TV channel that I’m definitely not going to watch again, TNT, and said that’s always their conversation, say they pay you. That’s not how I see it, football pays them, they deliver. But it’s not like TNT isn’t doing a great job, or Sky or whatever, is doing a great job.
“They can pay you all, that’s all right. You’ve got to be part of football again, not just squeeze. That’s it, a little advice from an old man along the way. I’m very Will watch football, but not all because people can survive without match days from time to time.
There are no English semi-finalists in the Champions League or Europa League, which Klopp believes is due to the fixture list.
He added: “[Manchester] City and Arsenal, they are out in the quarter-finals, this is not just a reflection of quality. It’s just a reflection that we couldn’t deliver on the day we were supposed to. Yes, other countries have really good teams, no doubt, but this is a sign. Years ago I think we had four English teams in the quarter-finals. And then we take it and say, ‘Yes, this is Premier League quality and let’s make more of it.’ But we have to change that approach, that’s how it is. You always think when I talk about it, it’s because of our last situation.
“We didn’t lose against West Ham. But because of the last game. No, it’s a normal problem. It has nothing to do with our schedule now. That they dare to give Thursday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday 12.30. I Actually was waiting for Amnesty International to go to them. Someone sits there – you like this press conference – so someone just sits there and decides. I want to meet, I once Would love to be the part where someone says, ‘Liverpool 12.30’, and the whole room bursts into laughter, ‘again?!’ I would love to live there.
“This morning I was sent the biggest turnover stat in the whole world. Liverpool FC, yeah (laughs). And we sit there, and I’m like, ‘You’ve got to do more,’ I say to you. You have to fight more, and you have to go for it.’ In the whole world, we have the fastest changeover. But they are still happy. You can remove me from this list , so I speak English! I could do it.”
Conor Bradley is back in training and in contention to face Tottenham on Sunday, but Virgil van Dijk is a doubt and Diego Jota will not be available to return. Meanwhile, Klopp has dismissed his touchline bust-up with Mohamed Salah at West Ham as “a non-story”.
He added: “If we haven’t known each other for that long, I don’t know how we’d cope but we’ve known each other for so long and respect each other.”
Salah will enter the final year of his contract in the summer and Liverpool expect him to stay at the Egyptian. Although Klopp will not be involved in the decision, he said: “Mo is unbelievable as a player and I don’t think I should talk about him. Others will decide that especially Mo, I have no sign that it won’t. I just try to lay the groundwork for the future.”
Credit : www.independent.co.uk
