Shots Fired: Jurgen Klopp Asks Jose Mourinho To Stop Whining About The English Fixture List
Apr 30, 2017 at 10:38 AM
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hits back at Jose Mourinho and asks the Portuguese to stop whining about the fixture congestion his team and squad are in the middle of at the moment.
The Red Devils have already played 10 matches more than Liverpool have this season and as a result, they have a long injury list at the moment.
The likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Juan Mata, Marcos Rojo, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Paul Pogba are all absent for this weekend’s tie against Swansea City and Jose Mourinho took it to his pre-match press conference to compare Liverpool’s schedule with that of Manchester United.
Speaking to the media before the Swansea game, Mourinho claimed that Liverpool have an unfair advantage in their pursuit for the top-4 because they are absent from the other competitions.
‘First of all, I think we have played 18 more matches than Liverpool [this season],’ said Mourinho.
‘Eighteen more matches is like half of a Premier League, 18 matches are many miles in the players’ legs.
‘So you can say that is an unfair fight, but we are going for [a top-four place].,” he added.
Liverpool were knocked out of both cup competitions in a matter of 10 days and have ever since been playing just a game every week.
In stark contrast, Manchester United have had just three weeks without any games in the midweek.
In fact, United will play more than a game in every week from now to the end of the season but Jurgen Klopp felt that Mourinho should stop complaining about it.
The Reds were in a similar position in the last season, where they went to the finals of the Europa League and the League Cup.
And Klopp today felt that it was never up for discussion when his team were going through a similar patch.
Speaking to the media ahead of his side’s trip to the Vicarage Road, Klopp said, “I can imagine what he means but they have played a similar season to what we had last year.”
“They also have a different squad, a wider squad, and with all of their injury problems they had so far they are still able to put out teams and you think ‘Mkhitaryan isn’t playing? Rooney isn’t playing? And him, and him…,” he added.
He also went on to reveal that it is always hard for a club to go through such congested fixtures lists.
“It is different but of course it is hard. They have seven or eight games left – five in the Premier League, a semi-final and maybe a final – and yes that is hard, absolutely, but we had a similar situation last season, not fighting for the Champions League, unfortunately.
“It’s not unfair, it is the situation. Nobody asked us last year how we felt about it,” Klopp added.