At the very moment that Jason Cummings scored his 2nd goal and Shrewsbury’s equaliser against Liverpool in the FA Cup 4th round the Reds manager may well have been thinking about his wife and his holidays. Earlier in the game Klopp saw that his team were cruising 2-0 up, this game looked dead. Except it wasn’t, Shrewsbury tore up the rule book, came back and now a replay will be played. But there is a problem.
That problem lies in the fact that the replay must take place in the scheduled Premier League break at the beginning of next month and Klopp evidently has other plans. The German said: “We intend to honour the original idea of the break, we have respect for the players’ welfare and they need this time off. We got a letter from the authorities in April last year asking us not to organise anything during the week of the break and we haven’t. We have given the players the time off, and some are going away. They will still be keeping fit, but they do not have to play football that week and they do not have to come in to Melwood.”
Firstly Liverpool did indeed get a letter from the FA requesting that certain games are not played during the break, those are money making friendly matches and not competitive games, that he did not clearly point out.
Klopp will play a youth side it seems, the same that played against Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup and were destroyed. So secondly Klopp simply doesn’t want to be in the FA Cup, his total lack of regard for the competition is a little staggering. Yes the league title is more important but the club do have a 16 point lead at the top with a game in hand. The Champions League doesn’t kick off for almost another month and in short Liverpool could have started the replay with a strong squad.
Having said that Klopp rings the changes when it comes to cup matches and he has promised players time off, that is acceptable in a way, so they come back refreshed. However the sticking point here seems to be that he will not oversee the replay. Instead he intends to honour the break. Now giving your players that time off is one thing, but really, does anyone want to see the manager doing the same thing? Really? Don’t lose youngsters want to look over in the dugout and see Klopp there?
Last month he couldn’t be there against Aston Villa and neither could the first team who were playing in the World Club Cup, this time the excuse is holidays. But for Klopp being absent it just leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Liverpool have been non existent and to a case very disrespectful of the domestic cups. And yet took FIFA’s World Club Cup seriously, it has prestige maybe only in the clubs trophy room.
Klopp is one of the most likeable managers out there right now, but his likeability slipped a little this week.
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