Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, has said hat the Football Association (FA) has made an”incredible” decision to schedule FA Cup fourth-round replays during the Premier League’s two-week mid-season shutdown in February and said that players are being compromised by a lack of communication between top clubs and football’s authorities.
Klopp hits out at FA over fixture pileup https://t.co/Udn7CZOZWv pic.twitter.com/UBncleeDz3
— liverpoolnews2019 (@liverpoolnews26) December 20, 2019
Premier League leaders Liverpool are due to play their 56th competitive game of 2019 when the face Brazilian side Flamengo in the FIFA Club World Cup Final in Doha, Qatar on Saturday.
Klopp chose to field the club’s Under-23 team against Aston Villa in Tuesday’s 5-0 Carabao Cup quarterfinal defeat due to fixture congestion preventing Liverpool from playing the game once they returned from Qatar.
But with FA Cup fourth-round replays due to be staged on Feb. 4 and 5, Klopp has told ESPN that Liverpool will have their planned Premier League break between Feb. 1 and 15 interrupted
if they beat Everton in round three and then draw a potential fourth-round tie.
“The problem that we have is the Premier League have decided we have a winter break and the FA decided the re-game [replay] if you have to play, if you draw in the fourth round, youplay the re-game in that week,” Klopp said.
“It’s incredible. It’s just in the winter break. Right? That’s when they set the game.
“Ok, how is that possible? Nobody speaks about these things. I really don’t understand that.
“The problem we have now is nobody speaks enough. We don’t speak enough to each other so the Premier League, the Football League, the FA, UEFA, FIFA, everyone is planning their own things and nobody follows that so there is no common schedule for everybody.
“Look at that. They are the games, we can’t do more games.”
After being informed of Klopp’s concerns, the FA told ESPN that every effort will be made to be flexible and ensure that all Premier League clubs benefit from a full two-week break, with the potential of a fourth-round replay being moved to a later date in the calendar.