Liverpool football club are in a very unique position, one that has rarely, if ever, been seen before. Festive period fixture congestion, plus the fact that they’re alive in so many different competitions, has them with a schedule conflict. Literally, they have to pay two different games on the same exact day.
So they have decided that instead of trying to reschedule the December 17 date, where the Reds will compete in both the EFL Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup, they’ll just field two entirely different teams. In response to this move, the English Football League have warned LFC that they “must meet the competition’s selection requirements” for the quarterfinal tie versus Aston Villa.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who previously said that his side would forfeit the EFL Cup if a suitable date could not be found, said they’ll figure out how to approach the double later. (i.e. the strength of the given teams they’ll field for each clash)
“We asked Aston Villa if they could come to Qatar and we could play the game there,” Klopp said jokingly.
“We don’t know exactly how we do it, we have an idea but it’s too early to speak about it. We had to make a decision, we made that decision because all the other alternatives were more problems than solutions and didn’t work out.
“We said this way we can do as good as is possible. In the next couple of weeks we will decide exactly how it will look,” he said.
Klopp also fielded a question about how whether or not pressure had been put on him by FIFA and the EFL.
“Kind of,” he answered.
“You want to be really in trouble with FIFA? I’m not sure. You want to be really in trouble with the EFL, probably not. We respect the competitions.”
The German said that the status quo is just not working out right now, and that a new solution must be found.
“You cannot work like this that you hope that somebody goes out and then everything is fine,” he said.
“I don’t want to cancel competitions, I am from Germany, why would I want to cancel English competitions? But it should still be possible to talk about the problems and that is what I did. If some people don’t like that — I cannot change.
“The problems are obvious. Every year we do the same thing — and some people find it funny that ‘Look at that they have to play five games in three days, let’s see how they do that?’
“We cannot carry on like this, come on, that is why I asked to sit down at a table because at one point we have to find a solution, the solutions so far sound to me more like another problem.”
Liverpool FC at Manchester City FYIs
Kickoff: Sun Nov 10 4:30 BST, City of Manchester Stadium
Google Result Probability: Manchester City 38%, Draw 27%, Liverpool FC win 35%
Odds via Betway: Liverpool FC 6/4 Draw 13/5 Manchester City 17/10
Form Guide: Manchester City WWWLW Liverpool FC WWDWW
Prediction: Manchester City 2, Liverpool FC 2
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
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