Klopp is angry about the start time of the City-Liverpool match. He doesn’t know the statistics yet.

Klopp is angry about the start time of the City-Liverpool match. He doesn’t know the statistics yet.

Grigory Telingater November 24, 2023, 14:00 Moscow time

Let’s see which statements of the coach are justified and which are not.

The main match on Saturday, November 25 between Manchester City and Liverpool will begin at 15:30 Moscow time. In England it will be 12:30. This fact irritated the visiting coach, Jürgen Klopp.

“We can practice maybe once. How did they put on a game like that at 12:30 on Saturday? To be honest, people who make such decisions simply do not feel football. It’s just unreal. Is this the moment when the world pays the most to watch football? I honestly don’t know if this is the case or not. Someone should explain it. I can’t imagine how many Liverpool and Manchester City players will go to the national teams, but I think it will be around 30. We will organize a separate flight for the South Americans. It’s really crazy,” Klopp said in his last press conference.

This story makes it seem like the calendar compilers simply miscalculated something. In reality, everything is much more complicated. Klopp’s words about “the moment the world pays the most to see” refer to Asia. Since last season, the Premier League began to earn more from broadcasts abroad than in England. True, just a little, but still. The three-season package (2022-2025) was sold domestically for 5 billion pounds and in other countries for 5.05 billion pounds, meaning the external audience became very important and influential.

The Chinese paid $700 million for a three-year contract. And it turned out that precisely for the Asian public the start time of the match could be adjusted, which would be acceptable to go to the England stadium. 12:30 in Manchester is 8:30 in Beijing. While it is difficult to find a convenient space for American viewers, it is very possible for Asian viewers. And when Premier League teams spend €100 million on new players, they should remember why England has such rich clubs. Broadly speaking, do you like to buy Darwin Núñez for 80 million euros? Then it is worth accepting the wishes of the television broadcasters, who make the Premier League the richest league in Europe.

Jürgen Klopp and Darwin Núñez

Photo: Liverpool FC via Getty Images

It is true that Klopp can also be understood. For some reason, every time the national team’s games are over, it’s his team that plays first on Saturday. And this happens again and again. In 2023 – in all possible cases:

first Premier League match after March internationals: City – Liverpool (Saturday, 12:30); first Premier League match after the September internationals: Wolverhampton – Liverpool (Saturday, 12:30); first Premier League match after the October national team matches: Liverpool – Everton (Saturday, 12:30); first Premier League match after the November national team matches: City – Liverpool (Saturday, 12:30).

This will be his 14th early game since Klopp arrived in England. Even if we take into account that the Asian public goes to the best clubs, there is still a huge imbalance. In second place are Tottenham and Chelsea, who have six such games each during the same period, while Manchester United and City have five each. It seems that Klopp is not aware of these statistics, otherwise he would become even more outraged and cite this data as evidence.

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The coach’s disappointment is understandable, because the most difficult thing in his situation is the return of the footballers from Latin America. They have less time to train and are more tired. At the same time, in City only one player was forced to cross the Atlantic by plane: Julián Álvarez (Ederson is also there, but he missed the national team matches due to injury). While Liverpool has four Latin Americans: Alison, Mac Allister, Luis Díaz and Darwin Núñez (all have two international matches in this window).

Interestingly, this time everything should have been different, but many factors turned out to be against Liverpool. The City – Liverpool match was originally scheduled for Sunday, but the match had to be postponed to Saturday due to Tuesday’s City – Leipzig match in the Champions League. Otherwise, Guardiola would only have one day (Monday) between the two games. And although both matches will take place in Manchester and the second match has almost no importance in the tournament (City has already left the group and is now fighting only for the first line, which offers the best draw), such a schedule is simply not allowed.

Jürgen Klopp and Josep Guadiola

Photo: MICHAEL REGAN/GETTY IMAGES

The match between City and Liverpool was scheduled to be moved from Sunday to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. This is also a space allocated to Sky Sports. However, this match schedule was not approved by local stakeholders, including the police (reporting from The Athletic). Concerns about fan problems arose after a young Manchester City fan was injured and other fans suffered racial abuse during the last match between the two teams at the Etihad last December (Carabao Cup). Problems also arose after a Premier League match at Anfield last season when a City bus was vandalized as it left Merseyside.

Fans in the UK were used to watching Saturday’s match early at 12:30 pm on TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport), but as the match was already booked on Sky Sports, the channels had to change times. And Klopp is outraged.