Along with the typical questions that leading into a big game, especially one against Manchester City, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp spoke out Friday about the international break and the quarantine rules that come with the protocols upon returning.
Fully vaccinated players that go on international duty and play in “red” countries, must quarantine for 10 days in a hotel, and can only leave once a day to play or train.
Liverpool vs Manchester City FYIs
Kick-off time: 4:30 PM GMT, 3 October Sunday
Team News: Manchester City Liverpool
Starting XI Predictions: Manchester City Liverpool
Form Guide (All Competitions): Liverpool (WWWDW) Manchester City (WDWWL)
Four Liverpool players – Alisson, Fabinho, Kostas Tsimikas and Sadio Mane – could be affected by these rules.
“You can choose the hotel yourself, but food has to be delivered in front of your room door and you are not allowed to have any visitors,” Klopp said.
“If that’s the solution, I don’t know where it’s coming from.”
“That would mean the player go for 10-12 days with their national teams, then go another 10 days away from their families to quarantine,” the German continued.
“That’s 22 days, and two weeks later, there’s the next international break. That doesn’t sound to me like a real solution.”
The German wasn’t done hitting out at various targets within the football world. He then took aim at the Premier League, the government, the whole system in general.
“I don’t expect the government to be 100% concerned about the Premier League situation, about the need of specific players, but the Premier League has to fight for our players,” he continued.
“That’s not the situation now.”
Basically, Klopp said a lot of this has just become overkill, added cautions that are not really needed.
“The players are constantly in bubbles. They are here in a bubble, they are on international duty in a bubble and I don’t know exactly why that is now different to what it was,” the LFC boss continued.
“What I really don’t like about it is that I don’t think it is properly thought through. It feels a little bit like somebody in the government opens the door in an important office and says, ‘By the way, we still have to sort the footballers’, and someone says, ‘Why what is wrong with them?’ “They say ‘they are playing in red-list and they don’t like the 10-day quarantine hotel’, so they just say ‘let them go in another hotel then’.
“No, no, come on boys! We take people out of normal life for three weeks for no real reason. We take care of our players. They are here, they live with their families, they don’t do anything else. They come to training and go home. Now we have to put them in a hotel and deliver their food? It’s just not right.”
Food for thought; indeed. Now will anyone in charge listen to Jurgen Klopp?