Jurgen Klopp highlighted Bukayo Saka’s injury on Sunday as another example of the current problem with Premier League football.
Jurgen Klopp is unhappy with the current congested fixture schedule, with games every weekend and every midweek often spaced unevenly so they can all be televised in individual timeslots.
Then the international break comes around and some players play all three games consecutively. We saw that with Bukayo Saka, who returned to Arsenal after three games for England and picked up an injury despite starting on the bench on Sunday.
Klopp cited the Saka example in his complaint about the current situation.
“If you don’t start talking to BT, we are all done,” Klopp said on Sky (via James Nalton). “If we keep playing on Wednesday, and Saturday at 12:30, I’m not sure if we will finish the season with 11 players. I know you don’t care, and that’s the problem.
“Yesterday, Pique massive knee injury. Today maybe Saka, I’m not sure, looks like a knee injury – he played all three games for England in the international break.
“It was never about us when I’ve spoken about it. It’s about all the players. England players, players who play at the Euros next summer. It’s not just about Liverpool, it’s about all the players out there.”
Mikel Arteta admitted Saka was “in pain”, though they don’t know the exact nature of the injury just yet. Willian also picked up a muscular injury on Sunday. It’s hard not to see the point in what Klopp is saying.
At Liverpool, they’ve lost Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez, potentially for the entire season in both cases – though we wish them a speedy recovery sooner than that. Plenty of other clubs will follow, it’s just inevitable at this point.