Premiership prima donnas

[Need4speed]

There are 20 premier league club, a further 72 in the next three Football League divisions and yet it is the managers of Liverpool and Man City who seem to have the loudest and most listened to views about the structure of our game. How can Pep complain about the number of games with the number of players he has bought for jaw dropping amounts of money. Klopp the same, does he not know that Shrewsbury have only played two less games than Liverpool this season. Both clubs chose to have long distance pre season tours and if they had less games we know they would schedule more. As managers they need to recruit and manage their squads for the reality of English football. If they can’t or don’t like it, go somewhere else. The football authorities need to ignore their rants and think a little more about other clubs who need match revenue to try and compete and about the fans of clubs throughout the football pyramid.
Klopp is showing himself to be a poor loser, mardy arse He should have managed his team not to throw away a two goal lead yesterday, not use it as an excuse for changing the structure of our football

 

[scouseblade]

Actually, it is the folly of the FA. They announce that there would be a winter break and clubs should honour it - ie no competitive or friendly games. Then in the next breath order FA replays in the actual winter break. What is the point of having a break then. Specifically when you are asking players to rest. Klopp might be a bit mardy but he is spot on. This is the FA's folly of their own making.

 

[I should coco]

It was the Premier League who initiated the winter break, not the FA, and they requested that all clubs respect it. This means no competitive or friendly matches, so Klopp is only going along with this.

It is a typical English cock up, with the FA scheduling replays in the already announced PL break.

I've posted previously about the FA allowing the cup to be dicked about with, but they really don't help themselves. The break was clearly announced, so unless the FA wanted the big boys not to play their best teams, they couldn't have messed it up better.

Twats, the lot of them.

 

[RedandWhite]

I agree, because it affects their club it should be changed, pfft. They should not be allowed to manipulate our FA into changing the traditional English game. It's been this way for decades leave it alone.

Shrewsburys manager even said the as they managed to get a replay, the club would be able to get video analysis equipment for their training ground as well as better drainage for their pitches.

 

[scouseblade]

Replays should stay.
Remember it is the FA Premier League. So it is the FA and FA Premier League basically not listening to each other. Morons.

 

[Houston_Blade]

It's weird that the EFL with the JP Trophy (or whatever it's called nowadays) brought in the rule to limit the number of changes from the pervious league game to preserve some form of competition but the FA haven't bothered in the FA cup. I thought that they might have tried something similar.

 

[Cappy]

Or maybe...
Klopp and Pep know they have a voice and will be listened to, so make a stand on behalf of all the other smaller-voiced teams

...Or maybe not

 

[PokerBlade]

You can spin this how you want. The other way of looking at it is if even teams with the squad and resources of Liverpool and Man City say they feel the effects of the fixture list then it really must be hurting a lot of sides.

It doesn't matter if it's Klopp or Pep saying it and the reason you hear more from them than other managers will be in no small part because the press don't do anywhere near as many interviews or stories on the opinions of League One managers. And, personally, I think they're right about how tight the schedule gets at times. It's been fine for us this season, given we exited the League Cup early, and we're used to the schedule of League One and Championship, but when we were down there it did feel like there was a problem. And if we were to make Europe and have a cup run next season I could see how we might be on their side.

I reckon we could solve a lot of it by cutting down the internationals. Too many pointless qualifiers and friendlies that are crap to watch anyway.

 

[HodgysBrokenThumb]

Klopp's response was puzzling, and he is someone who normally speaks sense. None of the starting line-up v Shrewsbury have played much football this season (I have not checked the details), and I would have thought it gives fringe players a chance to play competitive football. That squad could play in the replay, and his preferred first XI could again rest. Maybe a few could be on the bench again, but that cannot be so tiring.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

How do these people (Pep/Klop) think they have voice, when both of them will probably be gone in the next 2/3 years.

 

[Eddiecolquhounsleg]

Make them play the replays on the Tuesday and Wednesday of the week following the first tie, like they used to.

 

[metalblade]

Fuck Liverpool let them play the U18's should have put a team out to do the job in the first tie.

 

[Rollerball]

Simple question is this, how many people around the world would happily play 70+ games of football over a 9 month period and earning £10,000. - £500,000 a week, ?
Personally I'd play 3 x 90 min games a week if I was earning 10 grand a week.
These are supposed to be professional footballers, highly conditioned and looked after yet, especially the premier league , play less games in a season than they did in the days of the old league division 1, so I don't get the whole "tired legs" the players are supposed to be far fitter than they used to be.
Fuck em, make em play 70% of previous 5 games in cup games, if not a league points reduction soon have the cups fought for again.

 

[corner_flag]

Funny they didn't have much to say about the overloaded fixture list over Christmas - because they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them (sky/TV)

But they winge about the cup, even though their first team didn't even play.

They wanted to win the fixture without playing it but it didn't work out like that.

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Seb Coe broke three world records in eleven days. Proper sportsman - and not on £250K a week.

 

[ormester]

Let's hope there punished

 

[nopigfansintown]

The FA Cup is the oldest elite Cup competition in the World. It is absolutely impossible that too many FA Cup ties are played, a logical fallacy.As a matter of fact, they have already dispensed with replays from the fifth round onwards (a disgrace btw!). If there are too many games there are five or six other competitions that should be curtailed first.

 

[jt64]

Seb Coe broke three world records in eleven days. Proper sportsman - and not on £250K a week.

And the average PL player runs more in 20 minutes of a match than Coe would have done in doing so

 

[BushBlade]

Seb Coe broke three world records in eleven days. Proper sportsman - and not on £250K a week.

World’s most inappropriately funded stadium.

World’s dodgiest parking space.

World’s most Teflon coated.

 

[steve26272]

When Klopp said that I thought he was been a mardy twat, but...
Winning the premier league will earn £150m
Winning the fa cup will earn £3.5m

so that’s like the boss of your full time job that pays the mortgage and bills telling you in the summer to book a weeks holiday in Feb to rest for the final push
Then the boss of your part time job asks you to pop in for a day during that week
You would tell him to get bent as you’ve had this booked for months



theFA should respect the call, surely they too were aware of the mid winter break?

let’s not forget that most players, managers and fans agree that a mid winter break, especially prior to Euro 2020 was designed to give England a better chance?
Everyone says we’re at a disadvantage against those countries that do

 

[SheepdipBlade]

And the average PL player runs more in 20 minutes of a match than Coe would have done in doing so

True - but although the average PL footballer might be able to vary pace and direction more than Coe (or any elite athlete) - Coe - as a multi world record holder - IMO was a sportsman in a different class to modern overpaid, self entitled, pampered footballers. I doubt many - if any - could survive the workload and commitment Coe showed. That's why he was simply the best in the world - footballer's have always got ten mates to hide behind and the physical demands of the game simply don't match those of being the fastest human ever over a given distance.

 

[Paulus]

Maybe, but Coe’s still a twat.

 

[CarlMcBlade]

Let Liverpool and Man City abstain from domestic cup competitions. They’ll find it a very lonely place sat on the other side of the fence.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

 

[Badger Blade]

Back in the old days, they used to keep replaying games until we got a winner so they should think themselves lucky. Even now, we've reduced the number of replays that we used to have so they'll just have to suck it up.
If Liverpool can name players in squad numbers into the 70's, then they clearly have a big enough squad to cope!

 

[Flatulent_Bob]

Simple question is this, how many people around the world would happily play 70+ games of football over a 9 month period and earning £10,000. - £500,000 a week, ?
Personally I'd play 3 x 90 min games a week if I was earning 10 grand a week.
These are supposed to be professional footballers, highly conditioned and looked after yet, especially the premier league , play less games in a season than they did in the days of the old league division 1, so I don't get the whole "tired legs" the players are supposed to be far fitter than they used to be.
Fuck em, make em play 70% of previous 5 games in cup games, if not a league points reduction soon have the cups fought for again.

No, the question is how many of them could play it at the highest level and maintain playing at that physical and mental peak over a season.
The money always gets brought up and it's always totally irrelevant, it's about what the human body can physically handle consistently week in week out.
You could watch 70+ games a season if they were all at a significantly lower performance level, but we don't want to watch that.
The old first division players were on the piss and eating mixed grills before the match. To try and compare what we watch with that shows a huge level of ignorance or deliberate bias.
You might be happy seeing out of conditioned players performing at a significantly lower technical level, but most of us want to see the best play the best and that means that bodies need rest inorder to be able to do that.

 

[8lade]

Seb Coe broke three world records in eleven days. Proper sportsman - and not on £250K a week.

Coe coordinated his season to do this, there's no way he could've done it every week for 35 weeks.
The money is irrelevant to this argument.
Coe has repeatedly proved since retiring what a self centred bellend he is - I know that's nothing to do with the argument either but I just like to point it out.

 

[Brownieblade]

Of course they have the biggest voices, it’s like that in every country, if we had been in there place for last 100 years we would be saying the same

I remember when Fergie and Man Ure tossed the cup of to chase some money but this seems to be more we have been told this needs to be a break now you are telling us to play etc

I personally don’t think there is any need for replays, I think the FA and prem/EFL could be sensible and change the money structure to see teams from lower leagues getting more cash from the ties so they don’t lose out on money from replays

 

[SheepdipBlade]

Coe coordinated his season to do this, there's no way he could've done it every week for 35 weeks.
The money is irrelevant to this argument.
Coe has repeatedly proved since retiring what a self centred bellend he is - I know that's nothing to do with the argument either but I just like to point it out.

True again - but let's recognise that his coordination was based around a physical work rate far in excess of PL footballers are subject too.

If we take Coe out of the equation and make the comparison with Mo Farrah instead. A PL footballer will run 6-7 miles in 90 mins - in that time Farrah would have run over 20 miles. I accept that football doesn't require players to run that distance - but IMO footballers couldn't match that and couldn't match the preparation that allows Farrah to do it. That's why they are just footballers and not elite athletes. IMO, physically and mentally, elite athletes are in a different class to PL (footballing elite?) players.

 

[Paulus]

What’s with all the athletics crap already? They’re just running, I used to do it occasionally when I used a bus. It’s shit. My dog can outrun Mo bloody Farrah without batting an eyelid.