Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s clash with Chelsea, Reds manager Jurgen Klopp has taken time to dismiss Antonio Conte’s comments regarding lack of recovery time for his side following their midweek Champions League fixtures.
Chelsea will face Liverpool at Anfield in Saturday’s late Premier League game, only three days after their Champions League win against Qarabag in Azerbaijan.
The defending Premier League champions had to go through a whopping 5000 miles round trip in the Champions League for the Qarabag clash, which meant that the London side had only two days to recover between trips.
This lack of time to recover has led to Chelsea boss Antonio Conte to criticize the English FA over not giving his team more recovery time ahead of their clash against Liverpool at Anfield.
However, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has dismissed these claims from Conte by saying that Chelsea had similar benefits of not having travel a lot of distance last season in their title winning season and that every team needs to face such troubles at different times.
The charismatic German told the reporters, “I really get what Antonio is talking about. ‘I heard about it, but maybe he forgot they had the best Christmas schedule last year.
“Everyone played every two days and they had 12 days to play three games. It is the same situation this year and I don’t know how the Premier League will explain this. Now they have one day less.
“I really think recovery for a team is very important and he is right, but it will not have influence on this game. Maybe the next one, that is possible.
“Now they are already back, they flew back to London and they have two days to recover and that is a normal situation. Three days is never a problem, two days is a big problem but obviously nobody wants to hear that.”
Fatigue is bound to play an important role in this potentially epic fixture and both teams will likely be affected by it.
Liverpool had to play an emotionally draining 3-3 draw against Sevilla in midweek, where the Reds squandered a 3-0 lead while Chelsea had to travel more than 5000 miles, and it will be interesting to see which of the two teams get most affected by their exertions in Europe.
