Jurgen Klopp says he expects to lose his Brazilian contingent for the upcoming international break. Klopp has revealed that those called up for selection by the Selecao will now be released for international action as he pointed the finger at the Premier League’s fixture schedule upon the return to domestic action in mid-October.
Jurgen Klopp said: “We have a problem anyway when the Brazilians go on the next international break, and I expect them to go. We have a 12.30 kick-off at Watford. I think the game in Brazil is at 1.30am on Friday. Obviously nobody thought about that yet and it’s a Liverpool problem, not a problem for anybody else. It’s good for Watford and all these kinds of things, but I just don’t know how you can do these things and nobody reacts on the schedule. The schedule is always a problem but it’s like the TV guys and the Premier League just say ‘OK, that’s how it is, they have to play’. Let’s have a look at how we can sort that. It’s another thing that’s not good for the players and not good for the clubs as well. I hope that the government comes up with a solution.”
Meanwhile, Klopp said he would not stand in the way of Joe Gomez’s international return for England, should he be called up by manager Gareth Southgate. The Liverpool centre-back suffered a serious knee injury on his most recent call-up in November last year and only returned after 10 months away from competitive action against AC Milan on September 15.
Jurgen Klopp added: “But as for Joe – if he got invited by England I have no issues with that. It would be good for Joe, He needs games, he needs to play, definitely, and it is just now the situation we have here. Yes, I was careful, I try to be careful, try to be sensible with the centre half situation so far. We all know the three boys had big injuries, I don’t like to talk about it, it is the past, but of course we have to react to that, we can’t just think ‘OK that’s it, from now we do it exactly like we did before. They need to get rhythm – all of them – , that is what we are trying to give them, but we need to win football games as well, so that is what we try to do as well. So far it has worked out and hopefully it will stay like this forever. That would be really good news.”
