Ian Wright has defended Jurgen Klopp’s stance on lunchtime kick-offs.
Liverpool will face Manchester City in their first league game after the international break. The Reds will travel to the Etihad for a top of the table clash on Saturday, November 25 and are set to get the Premier League gameweek underway with a 12.30pm kick-off.
It has often been a sore subject for Klopp as the Liverpool boss has pointed to the amount of recovery time needed for players, fresh from being away on international duty. The scheduling for their upcoming clash with City means that the Reds have been handed early kick-offs after all four international breaks in 2023. However, Arsenal legend Wright voiced his displeasure at the timing of the game for a different reason.
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"I feel sorry for [Jurgen Klopp],” the former striker said on the Kelly and Wrighty show. “A game of that magnitude and how good it is, I’d have loved for that to be in the evening”
Wright trailed off with a sigh when mentioning the 12.30 kick-off time before being reminded by presenter Kelly Cates that it could still prove to be an entertaining contest.
“I hope so,” Wright added. “I know I’m not doing great advertising for the Premier League at the minute!”
After being selected for TV, Liverpool’s clash with City was forced into an early weekend slot as previous trouble between the two sets of supporters prevented the possibility of a Saturday evening kick-off. Moving the game to Sunday was also not possible as City will be in Champions League action on Tuesday.
The Liverpool boss made his feelings clear after his side’s win over Wolves in September, which saw Alexis Mac Allister replaced at half-time due to the narrow timeframe between his return from South America. The Merseyside derby was also played at 12.30pm, following the October international break.
"It’s not a problem if you have a normal week, I always said that,” Klopp previously explained. “It’s easy to adapt.
"The only problem is the lack of recovery time. We have four international breaks until March. [After] two of them we already have a 12.30 kick-off. If I say a word about it, the whole world goes, ‘He starts moaning again’.
"This is a joke. We have players [who were] in South America. I didn’t see them yet and we have 24 hours before we play, but it’s like it is. We cannot change that and we’ll never change that.
"The TV channel [TNT Sports] has a different name but that doesn’t change anything at all. They just don’t give a beep about that."
