JURGEN KLOPP has spent weeks giving football’s bosses an ear-bashing over Liverpool’s oncoming fixture pile-up.
Yet he might want to hope that his players turn a deaf ear to what is turning into a broken record.
Jurgen Klopp is unrelenting in his criticism of the fast-looming pile-up
For unless he is careful his continued complaints might begin to stress out a team currently blasting its way to the club’s first title in 30 years.
During his time in his homeland Germany as manager of Mainz and Borussia Dortmund, Klopp became the Messiah of motivation.
Dortmund chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke once referred to him as a Menschenfischern — a fisher of men.
Guido Schafer, a team-mate of Klopp at Mainz, said: “In Germany we call him Menschenfanger — people-catcher.”
Yet Klopp appears hooked on telling anyone who will listen that the task facing his European champions over the next few weeks is almost too daunting to contemplate.
He said as much as he looked ahead to the visit to Crystal Palace and the first of 12 games in the next 37 days.
‘NO CLUE WHO WILL PLAY’
Even if one set of players fail to reach the Club World Cup final 24 hours after another lot tackle Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup last eight, they will have a third-placed play-off.
Surprisingly for someone who has built his reputation on positivity, he declared he has “no long-term plan” to find a successful route through the congestion.
He said: “We just look at Palace. Wednesday, I have no clue who will play against Napoli.
“It is just about finding specific solutions for the specific moment.
“There will be times, especially in late December, when we have to see who fits best in which moment. But not yet.
“Other managers do it differently but it’s not like I know who is playing in two weeks.
“So there is no long-term plan but I should be used to it by now because this is the fourth period like this I have faced.”
Left-back Andy Robertson and striker Mo Salah could miss out against PalaceCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Except he clearly isn’t, and he even complained that the number of games meant that he had even more media commitments to deal with.
Klopp’s statement could hardly be described as a call to arms for his troops.
And some might argue that he was getting his excuses in first and fishing for some sympathy.
Yet while the challenge facing Klopp’s men is undeniably a tough grind, made more challenging with fitness worries over Mo Salah who is struggling to fully shake off ankle problems, his team are on a roll.
Not only are they eight points clear at the top of the table domestically but they face Roy Hodgson’s Eagles having suffered only one league defeat in 51 games stretching across three seasons.
SALAH’S A CONCERN
This campaign has seen 11 wins and a draw in 12 top-flight games.
What is more the Champions League holders will qualify for the last 16 of the competition with a win over Napoli while even a point could be enough to ensure safe passage.
Amid that fixture crush is also a sequence of Prem games most of which are clearly winnable for the team that just keeps on winning.
After the visit to Selhurst Park they play Brighton and Everton at home, Bournemouth (a), Watford (h), Leicester (a) and Wolves (h) before the turn of the year.
The scenario suggests every reason to be cheerful.
Klopp, however, was almost doleful as he looked ahead — perhaps because of those concerns over Salah who missed the international break with Egypt for treatment on that ankle.
There is every indication the attacker, who has been playing through pain for weeks, will not face Palace.
Klopp who also has concerns over Andy Robertson’s ankle injury while centre-back Joel Matip (knee) is still out, said of Salah: “He has trained the whole time he has been here during the international break.
“But only the things we have wanted him to do. It’s not that it has got worse but it’s still kind of there. It’s still there, that’s the problem.
“We have to be sensible with things like this. We have to make a decision.”
Yet Xherdan Shaqiri is now available for a match in which skipper Jordan Henderson will make his 250th Premier League appearance for the Reds.
Henderson’s team are vibrant, their start to the season speaking loudly of how they are embracing the challenge.
But when it comes to His Master’s Voice within Anfield there is not the sound of celebration.
Only that broken record and Klopp’s melody of the daily grind.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has welcomes back Jose Mourinho to the Premier League and jokes he knew he was desperate to get back in the dugout
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
