Jurgen Klopp blasts fixture schedule that sees his Liverpool side play Southampton three days after FA Cup final
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Published 16/05/2022 at 13:03 GMT
Jurgen Klopp admitted the shine had been taken off his side's FA Cup final win over Chelsea by having to prepare for a must-win Premier League game so quickly afterwards. The Reds are still in the hunt for the quadruple, but will need to take all three points from their visit to Southampton. Klopp said his team's schedule "makes no sense".
Klopp 'won't stop whining' about fixture congestion after 120-minute FA Cup final
Jurgen Klopp has once again railed at the fixture chaos wrought on his Liverpool team as they continue their bid to land a remarkable quadruple.
Liverpool played 120 minutes as they beat Chelsea in the FA Cup final on Saturday, but there was barely a chance for celebration given Tuesday night's Premier League encounter at Southampton.
The three-day gap comes on the day that the Reds' Champions League final opponents on May 28 - Real Madrid - saw their final La Liga match of the season pushed back to give them more rest ahead of the Paris showpiece.
Klopp, speaking in his pre-match press conference, said: "This is now game 61 [of Liverpool's campaign] so we have to be really careful, that’s clear.
“We don’t finish the season tomorrow, that’s not our last game of the season. That would, again, be different.
“When did Southampton have their last game before they play tomorrow? I think it was 10 days [ago] - [that's] long! So it’s completely different.
“OK, they might lack a little bit of rhythm, but if we make changes we lose that advantage of having rhythm as well.
They are completely fresh. We cannot go there and fall into this game like ‘Oh my god, what’s going on here?’.
“Imagine we go there with eight players who played 120 minutes. That makes no sense. So that’s why we have to make changes. I don’t know how many, we will see that and I will talk to the players obviously, but that’s tough.
"They thought the next day for us to play was Tuesday. [We] can't play Wednesday because of the Europa League final? UEFA, my friends."
Klopp admitted he and his players had not been able to savour their FA Cup triumph as much as they would've liked given the importance of their remaining three fixtures - two in the Premier League as they chase down Manchester City, and the European showdown with Real.
The German said: "Until the plane landed I was in a good mood and then I got tired.
"Why don't we have the FA Cup [as] the last game? That would have helped with celebrations because it's different when you play later.
"I really enjoyed the long party on the pitch with all the people. That's what it's about.
"When we stood in our corner with our people it meant the world to the boys."
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