JURGEN KLOPP has called on the FA to hold a summit with TV companies as he warns too many games can damage players’ health.
The Liverpool boss has only 13 senior players — including new £7.25million signing Takumi Minamino — available for tomorrow’s FA Cup third-round derby at home to Everton.
Jurgen Klopp only has only 13 senior players available to face EvertonCredit: PA:Press Association
Naby Keita is the latest of eight players unavailable with the club worried he may need surgery once the results of a scan on his damaged groin are known.
The league leaders face the Toffees in the 11th game of a grinding run over a 33-day period, which saw them win the Club World Cup, but go out of the Carabao Cup with a shadow squad against Aston Villa.
Klopp insists such a sequence is not just bad for his club but that too much football on telly is a danger to players from all clubs.
The German, 52, said: “We are throwing football at the people.
“It’s not about quantity but quality and we need to start talking about this. A solution has to be possible, the Premier League, the FA, the EFL and yes TV has to start talking and yes, the FA should bring everybody together.”
Klopp took flak over fielding the youngest Kop team ever in the League Cup quarter-final defeat.
But he will be forced to include more kids in his line-up tomorrow. He added: “People say I don’t respect cup competitions. This is not true.
Everybody is allowed to have an opinion but my first job is to respect the players.
“That is absolutely my No 1 job — I see them every day. I’ve got to decide if I’m allowed to play them again.
“It looks like the federations around want to make it more tricky.
“How can you look at a situation like Newcastle against Leicester earlier this week — losing four players in one game — and not think ‘this is crazy’.
“I try to respect the competition but I also have to respect the players.
“Sports science and medicine is one thing but you can’t have 30-40 players in your squad — it is just not possible.”
Klopp comes up against new Goodison manager Carlo Ancelotti for the first time since the Italian returned to the Premier League.
Jurgen Klopp jokes with Gabby Logan about questions on Liverpool already winning the league
And the Kop boss was full of praise.
He said: “Carlo is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met — he lifts players.
“A world-class manager and a good squad is a proper combination.”
Takumi Minamino is available for Liverpool’s FA Cup third-round derby at home to EvertonCredit: EPA
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
