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Klopp Boycotting the FA Cup

Discussion in 'World Football' started by MickeyyMack, Jan 27, 2020.

Discuss Klopp Boycotting the FA Cup in the World Football area at TalkCeltic.net.

  1. MickeyyMack CELTIC GLASGOW OK Gold Member

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    The Liverpool boss has been very vocal in his desire to see the number of games played reduced and will now skip the FA Cup replay against Shrewsbury.
    Jurgen Klopp clearly doesn’t pay much attention to marketing campaigns.

    Remember BT Sport and its 2019 effort?

    “Don’t mug off the cup,” was the message from the UK broadcaster, eager to hammer home the point that world football’s oldest club competition was still relevant; something to cherish and to respect.
    That point is hard to argue today, following the news that Klopp, together with his Liverpool first-team squad, will effectively boycott the Reds’ fourth-round replay with Shrewsbury next week.

    It is not quite Manchester Unitedwithdrawing from the competition entirely in 1999, but it is the next best thing. This is an elite club, the seven-time winners of the competition, prepared to give up their place in order to make a point. We are used to weakened teams, low crowds, awkwardly rearranged kick-off times and dwindling interest, but this is something entirely new. It will, if Klopp goes through with his plan, be a historic moment – and certainly not for the right reasons.
    “We will not be there - it will be the kids who play that game,” Klopp stated after his side’s 2-2 draw at the Montgomery Waters Meadow on Sunday. When asked by Goal if that meant he, too, would be missing, he replied: “Yes. Neil Critchley [the manager of Liverpool’s Under-23 team] will be in charge.”

    Klopp’s logic is clear. He has the backing of Fenway Sports Group, the club's owners, and he was willing to explain himself too.

    “In April 2019 we got a letter from the Premier League,” he said. “They asked us to respect the winter break and not to organise international friendlies or competitive games. We respect that.”
    The letter he refers to was sent to all Premier League clubs and did, indeed, state that clubs should avoid scheduling matches during their two-week hiatus. Clubs were, according to the letter: “expected to honour and respect the underlying rationale for the mid-season player break, namely to provide their players with a break from the physical and mental rigours of playing matches during the season.”

    Klopp is ready to do exactly that. "You cannot deal with us like nobody cares about it,” he continued. “I know that it's not very popular but that's the way I see it. The Premier League asked us to respect the winter break. That's what we do. If the FA doesn't respect that, then we cannot change it.”

    Klopp has barely concealed his distaste for the FA Cup since arriving in England. Remember the line-ups selected against Exeter and West Ham in 2016, Plymouth and Wolves in 2017, and Wolves again last January. Even the side which beat Everton earlier this month contained five teenagers.

    Liverpool play at West Ham in the Premier League on Wednesday and then host Southampton on Saturday, after which they were due to have a two-week gap before visiting Norwich on February 15. Their disappointing surrender of a two-goal lead at Shrewsbury, though, threw a spanner in the works, with the replay due for the week commencing February 3. Jason Cummings, Shrewsbury's two-goal hero, has a lot to answer for.

    Klopp is not the only one to complain about this rather bizarre scheduling – Southampton defender Jack Stephens called it “daft”, while Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho and Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola have called for replays to be scrapped entirely – but the German has been persistent, and vocal, in his belief that elite footballers are asked to play too many games.

    He too believes replays should be shelved, and has openly questioned the logic of a two-legged Carabao Cup semi-final as well. The decision to move the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations to January, meanwhile, prompted an impassioned seven-and-a-half-minute monologue about the issue of fixture congestion and player burnout. He has already expressed his concerns to UEFA directly.

    On Sunday, he said: “We have to respect the players' welfare. They need a rest. They need a mental rest, a physical rest, and that's what the winter break is all about.

    “Then another competition tells us that's not so important, so we had to make these decisions beforehand.

    “These boys have families. International players like Jordan Henderson, Virgil van Dijk, Gini Wijnaldum, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, all these guys, they are never off. The players will [now] have one week off.”
    The news, of course, will be met with a mixed reaction, both inside and outside of Liverpool. There will be plenty, naturally, who sympathise with Klopp, and who understand his desire to prioritise. The desire for a league title tops everything, and with the Champions League due to resume in three weeks’ time, there is plenty for fans and players to get excited about. Many will argue that, with the backing of Anfield, 'the kids' are perfectly capable of beating a League One side. They are certainly talented, as they showed even when beaten in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup at Aston Villa last month.

    But there will be others, die-hard supporters included, who will wonder if this is an extreme reaction, if Liverpool are cutting their nose off to spite their face. They haven’t won the FA Cup since 2006, and would take some stopping this season if they took the competition seriously. There is a genuine chance the league leaders could emulate Manchester United’s treble winners of 1999 here. History is written by the winners.

    Surely, the sceptics will ask, there is another solution? Plenty will wonder why, exactly, the manager needs to miss the game at all. They have a point.

    One only needs to look back to that Carabao Cup game at Villa, actually. Then, with Klopp and his senior squad in Qatarpreparing for the Club World Cup, Liverpool fielded the youngest XI in their history, handed out nine debuts and lost 5-0.

    It was, for want of a better word, farcical. Critchley’s side acquitted themselves well but were clearly unable to compete with their opponents both physically and in terms of experience. Had Villa not eased off in the second half, we might well have witnessed the biggest defeat in the Reds’ history. They were boys sent to do a man's job, with the whole world looking on.

    Liverpool had little choice then, but they have one now. We know why they are taking such a drastic course of action, but they don’t necessarily have to.

    Klopp could easily, for example, field a team similar to the one which drew on Sunday. Indeed, many would argue that he has first-team players – Xherdan Shaqiri, Naby Keita, Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip, Adrian, Adam Lallana, James Milner – who could do with getting some good, competitive minutes under their belt. Klopp speaks regularly about “rhythm’, and a fixture like this, a home tie against inferior opposition, looks ideal for that. It would require, at most, two extra training sessions and would still leave 10 days to rest and recover before the Norwich clash – ample time, surely?

    Unless there is a dramatic change of heart, though, it seems unlikely that any senior player will feature. Curtis Jones, Neco Williams and Harvey Elliott, the gifted teenage trio, may be allowed to play, along with Spanish midfielder Pedro Chirivella.
    The chances of any Under-23 player leaving on loan before the transfer window closes on Friday, Anfield sources say, are now slim at best. Critchley’s boys are needed to keep their club’s ‘treble’ dream alive – some task, given the Under-23s have already been beaten by both Oldham, Accrington and, on penalties, Fleetwood in the Football League Trophy this season.

    Ticket details for the Shrewsbury game should be released in the next 24 hours, and we can expect prices to be dramatically reduced given Klopp’s comments. If they are not, questions can and will be asked.

    As for Shrewsbury, they will head for Merseyside buoyed by an impressive showing in the original tie. For Sam Ricketts, his players and their supporters, it will still be a big night, a momentous occasion. “We could have won it,” Ricketts said of Sunday’s game. “But I think everybody wanted to go to Anfield.”

    In end they got their wish. The replay, Ricketts says, will enable them to buy some new video analysis equipment. For his fans, it is a rare chance to visit one of the world's great stadiums.
    It’s just a shame that when they get there, they are likely to be watching a side which is ‘Liverpool’ in name only.

    Don’t mug off the cup? It’s too late for that.

    It has been for years, in truth.
     
  2. Seosamh Máirtín

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    I've always been vocal about my disdain for these old fashioned cup competitions, same in Scotland. They need binned. They serve zero purpose nowadays and only congest an already busy calendar. Footballers are not basketballers, they require more rest for the good of the game. League and European games would be much better spectacles consequently.

    International football needs reviewed, as well.
     
  3. MickeyyMack CELTIC GLASGOW OK Gold Member

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    He’s complaining about the number of games and his players need a rest etc which I ain’t buying. Look when our season begins champion league qualifiers whilst the big boys are on holiday mode. How many games did cal Mac play last season ?..
    This is another example of the big English clubs holding power , Spurs and Man City will follow suit as they are already mumbling in the backround. Remember the top 6 in England formed the break away league ? Did they care about the rest did they *. This is another example of them calling the shots.
     
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  4. Whoflungdung

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    There no need for replays extra time and penalties to settle on the day surely ?
     
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  5. dmccourt95

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    Load of * his teams miles clear in the league he should be aiming for a treble
     
  6. Onefootwonder

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    If they didn't make a mess of the game last night they wouldn't have a replay. It's his own fault they have a replay.

    I can see his point that players need a rest, but I don't like to see teams devalue the cup.

    Smaller teams really could do with the revenue from the cup. Shrewsbury drawing with Liverpool and getting a replay means a massive boost to their finances. Is it fair that smaller clubs will have their finances starved just to preserve the finances of the big clubs?
     
  7. Onefootwonder

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    Will clubs be playing money spinning friendlies during the break?
     
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  8. littlekennie

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    Guys being a pain now if he didn’t wanna play the extra game then his side should have beaten Shrewsbury town who have a far much lesser budget wouldn’t be moaning if it was the champions league


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  9. littlekennie

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    I’d hate it if we done away with the cup competition in fact the other clubs outside rangers and Celtic it’s their lifeline and only hope for silverware they are that important to the game as a whole ..... would you rather all our clubs went to the wall and we were in a comp just us and rangers because that’s what would happen if we took away cups fans would stop going


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  10. eire4

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    That I agree with. Maybe even a reintroduction of silver goal in extra time as well.
     
  11. Tim-Time 1888 Always look on the bright side of Life Gold Member

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    Imagine how insufferable scousepool/plopp will be when they win the league... if there is a footballing * please make them throw it away somehow :giggle1:
     
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  12. Peej Gold Member Gold Member

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    His sentiment is okay, I get that there is a lot of games to be played, but Liverpool aren't unique in that - Shrewsbury are very likely playing MORE games - as do other teams in the EPL play the same amount as Liverpoool. Up here it is ridiculous the amount of games we play due to qualifiers, players barely getting 3 weeks off - down south they can get a nice 6-7weeks off in the summer.

    Cry me a river on that front - when the rest of teams are in the same boat.
    If he wants to talk about reorganising the cups, batter in, rightly so. Replays aren't needed - fight that cause. Remove one of the cups (obviously not the FA due to its history), I'm all for that.
    But half way through a tie and you just come across as throwing the dummy out, more so that he is bringing up the letter from April asking no club to hold a glamour friendly, to allow a break for the players. It's not hypocritical of the FA here, they didn't put out a weakened side and screw liverpool over.
    Second to that, the replay is on Tuesday - their final game before the break is the Saturday, the players are still getting 12 days off as opposed to 14. Hardly like the FA done a fast one and slapped it in the middle of the break and ruined the time off.
     
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  13. Peej Gold Member Gold Member

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    Loved Klopp as well, till he got swept up in the Liverpool nonsense. Insufferable as much as their fans are.
     
  14. Tim-Time 1888 Always look on the bright side of Life Gold Member

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    I liked him originally but the longer he has spent in the epl the less i like him, as for scousepool i detest them and always have, *. I'd rather see that * rodgers win the * thing than them tbh :52::56:


    As for the amount of games etc your post pretty much sums it up and highlights the mentality and the opinion they have of the epl, * the lot of them - rant over :giggle1:
     
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  15. Luis1967 Gold Member Gold Member

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    Look at us all big time again...spat the dummy out coz they threw away a 2 goal lead to Shrewsbury Town.
     
  16. Mr. Slippyfist

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    Too kcuh? Wit?

    These * do 2 hours work probably 5 days a week, plus a 60min game once a week ( on average).

    That's less hours per week than a part-time job in Home Bargains and these * are getting e.g. £100,000 PER WEEK!

    Here Klopp, Pep and Jose the *..........shut the * up ya shower of self-entitled fandans!
     
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  17. StevieBhoooy!

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    The FA cup is hardly some sort of minor additional competition.... problem is that the poisonous EPL and it’s TV money fuelled self-consumption takes priority over everything.

    The * is complaining about the number of games yet can take his elite squad out to Middle East or whetever for some ‘super cup’ glamour tie nonsense while sticking the German finger up at the National cup competition.

    Hmmn... couldn’t be anything to do with prize money could it?!?

    Maybe if they wanted less games then he should front up a proper 11 against the minnows and get the job done without giving away a 2 goal lead and then having to go to a replay... and eat into their precious break.

    As an aside ...(cynical hat on). I’d love to know the betting patterns (especially in Far East) for that 2-2 draw the other night.

    Unfortunately they seem too far ahead to be caught now... but I’d love it all to fall apart and win absolutely fknn nothing!!!

    Money has destroyed the ‘people’s game’ and the epl is at the core of it.

    Stinks.
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2020
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  18. Peej Gold Member Gold Member

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    Aye same, not a massive fan of Man City, although I do like Pep as a coach. But would love to see them get their act together and go unbeaten in the second half of the season now.

    But they won't.
     
  19. Slaw Gold Member Gold Member

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    Money has no influence on the capabilities of the human body (bar the improved sports science etc. There is a ceiling to what the body can do at 100%)
     
  20. Gyp Rosetti Gold Member

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    I can’t stand the specky *, he’s all jovial when it suits him but when any pressure is on he’s a *.
     
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