Liverpool manager Kenny Daglish has slammed the shambolic scheduling of Carling Cup games several times over the last few weeks, and he reiterated his frustration again after the Chelsea victory last night.
Prior to the game, Liverpool held discussions with Sky, the Premier League and the Football League in an attempt to get one of the games moved, but the club's requests were roundly ignored, something that has clearly irritated Dalglish, who scathed:
"It's totally irresponsible - three teams in the quarter-finals have got problems with fixtures: ourselves, Man City, and Crystal Palace, who play on Wednesday night, and then have to play again on Friday.
"Do me a favour! Jesus, I'm not clever, but I think I could've avoided that. The solution is to get somebody a brain".
Dalglish seemed happier with the overall progression of his team than being in the semi-final of the Cup:
"The way we're progressing is more important than the semi-final of a cup, especially one that's been cheapened by the actions of the people that run it, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't love to win it".
Ironically, Liverpool's comfortable victory seems to prove that the scheduling wasn't actually that much of a problem. Yes, 48 hours is not a long time to recover, but it didn't seem to affect Liverpool, did it?
Plus, it's not like the team is overworked; there's no European football, so many players are having up to a week at a time between games; and there have been three international breaks since the start of the season, which has meant even more rest periods for some players.
Jaimie Kanwar
Prior to the game, Liverpool held discussions with Sky, the Premier League and the Football League in an attempt to get one of the games moved, but the club's requests were roundly ignored, something that has clearly irritated Dalglish, who scathed:
"It's totally irresponsible - three teams in the quarter-finals have got problems with fixtures: ourselves, Man City, and Crystal Palace, who play on Wednesday night, and then have to play again on Friday.
"Do me a favour! Jesus, I'm not clever, but I think I could've avoided that. The solution is to get somebody a brain".
Dalglish seemed happier with the overall progression of his team than being in the semi-final of the Cup:
"The way we're progressing is more important than the semi-final of a cup, especially one that's been cheapened by the actions of the people that run it, but that doesn't mean we wouldn't love to win it".
Ironically, Liverpool's comfortable victory seems to prove that the scheduling wasn't actually that much of a problem. Yes, 48 hours is not a long time to recover, but it didn't seem to affect Liverpool, did it?
Plus, it's not like the team is overworked; there's no European football, so many players are having up to a week at a time between games; and there have been three international breaks since the start of the season, which has meant even more rest periods for some players.
Jaimie Kanwar
Tell your nonsense to Citeh who have to play and travel more than Liverpool did. Daglish's remarks are still valid even if Liverpool won the match! If they had lost then you would have complained that Daglish was making excuses before the match began. Who can win when you have an agenda to prove anything? This is repeated every year because somebody needs a brain...
ReplyDeleteThis is an irresponsible comment and on this issue Dalglish is right. Whether we play 45 or 55 games in a season is not the point - all of the current physiological data and analyses indicate that it takes 72 hours for a player to recover fully from the physical 'output' that is a modern premier league game. Players are running 10k in these matches only it is additionally punctuated by leaps, sprints, tackles and very few rests. This is not about 'poor, pampered brats' - it is a physiological reality.
ReplyDeleteYes we won the match, but you may have spotted that one of our hardest working players also picked up a serious injury - whether this was caused directly or indirectly by fatigue or had nothing to do with it, we will probably never know - but bit of a coincidence! No wonder Dalglish is incandescent with rage.
I think Kenny was referring to Jamie Kanwar.
ReplyDeleteI disagree - that's what having a big squad is for. Dalglish is always going on about the strength of Liverpool's squad, well it's times like this where the squad should be put to use.
ReplyDeleteI believe Kenny is using the media outlet to his advantage. The 48 hour break gives him a valid reason to do so.
ReplyDeleteTrying to manipulate the media to look on Liverpool favourably may be his ploy
I think Dalglish is right about the fixture pile up. Having said that, Lucas' injury was avoidable; as soon as we went 2-0 up Dalglish should have subbed Lucas and then Enrique shortly after that. Both players, especially the former deserved the rest after playing (the most intense 90 minutes of the season so far) against Man City a little less than 48 hours ago. Dalglish got away with Enrique, but Lucas’ knee injury is certain to see him miss a crucial chunk of the season in our bid to regain Champions League football. Dalglish has to get with the modern game and not overplay certain players. Lucas has come to be as important to Liverpool as Gerrard or Suarez more recently and Dalglish needs to understand that the rigours of the game have changed quite a bit from the 1990s. IMO, Lucas injury is Kenny's fault as it was avoidable via proper management decision-making. Kenny is doing a good job moreover, but it's the little no brainer managerial mistakes that may cost us Champions League football next season. That is frustrating as fuck.
ReplyDeleteThat is the whole point behind what kenny is saying champ... they have jammed the fixtures up too close together, so he is forced to include players who may not be 'first choice' players, in order to give 'first choice' players their MINIMUM recovery time... Its the same argument from AVB...
ReplyDeleteAlways moaning and groaning about kenny...
Point is, he's trying to win every game/ competition, and the fixture pile up reduces his chances of doing that, big squad or not. Yeah you can have a massive squad, but you still have your 11 best (form) players and the remainder of the squad, see man city. If you're forced to play some of your weaker players you automatically reduce your chances of winning, think that's pretty obvious.
ReplyDeleteAs for your comments on it not seeming to matter too much as we won last night, again, regardless of the result yesterday, if the players that played both games and managed to keep up their intensity for both, it merely means the effects of fatigue will be carried over into the next game on saturday. If you've ever tried playing three 90 minute games in 7 days, i'm sure you'd know that it doesn't make any difference how many you play in a season, in the match you play at the end of that week, your performance will suffer, if you even make it that far without picking up injury from a tired tackle (Lucas).
If we lose on saturday, and the players that played all three contribute to that loss by looking jaded, you'll see the massive, and entirely avoidable effect of this run of fixtures will have made, and we will have dropped precious points. The players maybe overpaid, over pampered etc, but they're still human, and any human would struggle with the exertions of this workload i'm afraid.
I think Dalglish is right about the fixture pile up. Having said that, Lucas' injury was avoidable; as soon as we went 2-0 up Dalglish should have subbed Lucas and then Enrique shortly after that. Both players, especially the former deserved the rest after playing (the most intense 90 minutes of the season so far) against Man City a little less than 48 hours ago. Dalglish got away with Enrique, but Lucas’ knee injury is certain to see him miss a crucial chunk of the season in our bid to regain Champions League football. Dalglish has to get with the modern game and not overplay certain players. Lucas has come to be as important to Liverpool as Gerrard or Suarez more recently and Dalglish needs to understand that the rigours of the game have changed quite a bit from the 1990s. IMO, Lucas injury is Kenny's fault as it was avoidable via proper management decision-making. Kenny is doing a good job moreover, but it's the little no brainer managerial mistakes that may cost us Champions League football next season. That is frustrating as hell.
ReplyDeleteI beleive 4 CM players should be enough for any team. But if you have 1 of them injured (Gerrard) it means 1 of the others (in this case Lucas) has to play the game after 48hrs of a full 90min match. This means that even if you have a big squad you will get injuries. Same thing with enrique if robinson was fit he might have played him. Honestly I think that playing a game after 48hrs is blatant stupidity to say the least.
ReplyDeletehe did use the squad as much as possible 7 changes shows the depth of the current set up however some common sense in these matters are required and to have such a scheduling i think its only fair to call it as it is.
ReplyDelete2 tough games in 2 days is stupid its ok to rotate your squad but you have to win the game also and to put players in unnecessary danger of injury just does not make sense no matter how big a squad you have or little games you have.
even if you only had league games for an entire season and playing those games every 2 days players would get injured far more than spreading it over the time frame of 9 months approx plus the quality of games would drop
I told Kenny and you guys earlier. The England FA is not going to listen to Liverpool. History tells us they are not on our side . But scums always had their ways.
ReplyDeleteYes, and Lucas' seeming long term injury has NOTHING to do with him having played 2 games in 48 hours.
ReplyDelete