Brendan Rodgers makes ‘ridiculous’ claim ahead of Leicester City vs Liverpool

Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers has bemoaned the Premier League’s busy festive fixture schedule ahead of his side’s clash against Liverpool on Tuesday evening.

The Foxes last played on Sunday afternoon, suffering a dramatic 6-3 defeat at the hands of Manchester City, and are in the midst of an injury crisis that has left their squad looking decidedly threadbare.

Rodgers is currently without four of his first-choice defenders, Jonny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu, Ricardo Pereira and James Justin, plus forwards Harvey Barnes and Patson Daka.

Ryan Bertrand joined that list of absentees after picking up an injury in the warm-up against Man City, with Leicester forced to name both Jamie Vardy and Wilfred Ndidi among their substitutes for that match, despite the former’s tight hamstring and the latter’s excessive accumulation of minutes in recent weeks.

What has Rodgers said on the matter?

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s match against Liverpool, Rodgers made his feelings about his side’s pile up of fixtures patently clear.

He said: “It’s a ridiculous schedule.

“We all know that players aren’t fully recovered for 72 hours after a game, so for us to be playing on a Tuesday against Liverpool it is ridiculous. However, we have to play the game so there will be virtually no physical work, just recovery and then we’ll look at video images and prepare.”

In contrast to their hosts, Liverpool have not played in six days after their game against Leeds United was called off due to a Covid outbreak at the Yorkshire club - another matter which Rodgers took exception to.

He said: “This period [of rest] clearly is a big advantage and it is just coincidence the context of these two games [against Man City and Liverpool] is probably one of the first weeks Manchester City have had off so they were fresh and ready, and Liverpool haven’t played since our cup game so they’ll be able to bring players back in.

“That’s what we have to deal with. It’s a huge challenge for us but it’s a challenge we’re up for. We keep fighting and we keep working.

“We’ll train a little bit later [on Monday], we’ll have a meal together. It’s a very quick turnaround and to play Manchester City and Liverpool in quick succession is a big challenge, especially with the squads they have. We’ll do what we’ve done in this period – our very best – and that’s what we’re prepared to do on Tuesday.”

What has Jurgen Klopp said on the matter?

The Liverpool boss has often spoken frankly and openly about his disdain for the busyness of the festive fixture schedule, and he repeated his prior calls for a reconsideration from authorities again this week.

He said: “The situation should not be like this and we can discuss this every year.

“It’s tradition and we want to play on Boxing Day, we could have played on Boxing Day and that would have been no problem at all.

“But playing on the 26th and the 28th is just not right, I just say that because it’s true and I think we can find solutions for that. It’s not that difficult to play football in a slightly different way. The 26th and the 29th, where’s the problem?

“It would just help the players, even without Covid, and the problem is now some teams definitely have a proper Covid problem at the moment and you rush a smaller group of players through two games. You need luck in these moments and you should not need luck.

“We do not stop discussing it because if we don’t discuss it, it just stays like this. Maybe it stays like this anyway but the players need help and help needs to come from other areas.”