Tuchel backs Jurgen Klopp following latest Football comments
According to reports, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has showed his backing of Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp amid his recent comments on the scheduling of football games.
The Reds’ manager has recently complained about the fact they will have to play Newcastle United shortly after their Champions League semi-final tie against Villarreal, with kick-off for the former game being at 12:30 on the Saturday after their clash with the latter on the Wednesday.
Both sides have met three times so far this season, with a fourth game set to come should they both win their respective FA Cup semi-final ties.
Tuchel spoke to the media ahead of their cup clash against Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon and revealed his backing for Klopp over the comments he made.
“It’s very difficult, very demanding. We had a look right after the game at the minutes played this season. We are by far the team that played the most minutes. We added some unnecessary minutes in extra times. This adds up to another one and a half or two games.
“It is pretty demanding but that is what you sign up for. I think Jurgen (Klopp) mentioned the 12:30 kick-off for his team on a Saturday. This is sometimes, yeah. We had or will have sometimes the feeling if you play in the Sunday and again a Sunday it could absolutely make sense to play on a Wednesday.
“We had sometimes the situation we needed to play on a Tuesday to make things tight to one game and a bigger gap to the other game.
“Between the schedule, that we don’t complain about because it means we are in other competitions and want to have this schedule because it tells you you play for a lot, in between there can be adjustments to make it easier to recover and take care about the players.
“It is about the players this game and taking care they don’t get injured and we prevent them. We need simply hours to recover and not sit in the bus and plane again. In these details I agree with him (Klopp), in general it is a stressful schedule but we love it at the same time. The five changes will help, a lot.”
Klopp expressed his views on the congestion, via the Liverpool Echo, as he said: “If we play a Champions League semi-final, find me another league in the world and another broadcaster who would put the one team in the semi-finals on at 12.30. It’s like: What? What are you doing? Why would you do that?
“That’s why it’s so difficult, that’s why it never happens, because nobody cares.”