Matt Maher: Jurgen Klopp has his sights fixed on the wrong target
Jordan Henderson is right about one thing, there is too much football.
A forthcoming club and international schedule already bent out of shape by a winter World Cup looks even more relentless due to the chopping and changing caused by the pandemic.
Players on top international teams aren’t likely to get what you might term a traditional, extended close season break until the summer of 2025. Henderson, who like many of his England counterparts had barely a fortnight off between the end of last season and the start of this, might have been one of the first players to publicly express his concerns about the impact on health but there are many who privately share them.
Importantly, the Liverpool captain made it clear he was talking about the broader issue of fixture congestion. Yet the timing of his comments inevitably threw the focus on to the Premier League’s festive programme and his club manager, Jurgen Klopp, was one of several top flight bosses to use them as a launchpad to rail against the schedule.
Under the current circumstances, there is undeniably a debate to be had about whether football, morally or logistically, should be continuing at a time when Covid-19 transmission rates are so high.
But crucially, Klopp’s complaint did not focus solely on the existing situation. Instead, he admitted to not understanding the need for such a hectic festive fixture schedule in any year. That view in itself might best be termed interesting, considering this is the first time in his reign – and indeed the first time since 2008 – the Reds have seen fixtures listed for both Boxing Day and December 28. For other clubs less coveted by broadcasters, the 48-hour turnaround is a far more common conundrum.
Klopp, who ultimately got the break he desired when a Covid outbreak at Leeds forced the postponement of their Boxing Day trip to Anfield, would no doubt point out his team play more fixtures than most over the course of a season, owing to their participation in European competition.
But why not, in that case, make more of a fuss over the format of those tournaments? Does the Champions League still need a group stage to end up with the usual suspects through to the knockout rounds? Do those later stages, in times of crisis, really need to be played over two legs? It would be nice, at some point, if managers started taking aim at the looming nonsense that is Qatar 2022.
Alas, when it comes to solving fixture congestion it is always the less lucrative, domestic competitions which must be compromised. One would hope in the coming days messrs Klopp, Guardiola and Tuchel will doff their caps to the FA for scrapping replays in next month’s third round, a move which will end up costing some of the lower-ranked teams in the competition money but at least it has removed one headache for the big boys.
On that note, there are no doubt many clubs in Leagues One and Two – where a relentless fixture list is accepted as an occupational hazard – for whom the complaints of Premier League bosses this past fortnight will have raised an eyebrow. That’s if they are being polite.
These are, after all, the same top flight clubs so concerned about the lack of experience provided for their academy players, they successfully lobbied for the inclusion of under-23 teams in the Football League Trophy, immediately tarnishing the competition. Now there is an opportunity to blood those players in a top flight game, they are deemed not good enough.
Premier League teams: “You have to let B teams into the EFL Trophy because it’s the only way our U23s will get better. Also Premier League teams: “There’s no way our U23s can play in actual games, call off the match.”
The above view, posted on the social media account of the Walsall podcast One Pod Beyond, will be shared by many. It is hard to argue with.
As is typical with fixture congestion the debate quickly becomes hijacked by self-interest, with those at the top determined to call the shots. Predictably, the topic of five substitutes has been pushed back toward the top of the agenda. Klopp was unnecessarily catty when criticising Burnley when he knows the Clarets are far from the only club opposed to such a move.
It’s a shame because Henderson definitely has a point about the demands being placed on players.
But it is not an issue which can be solved simply by removing one match from the festive programme. Neither should any solution merely take into account the interests of those at the top level.
What’s needed is a wider discussion about the structure of the domestic game and it needs to involve everyone, from the Premier League to the EFL and the FA, perhaps even Uefa and Fifa too.
Anyone complaining about too many matches at Christmas has their sights on the wrong target.
