Jurgen Klopp defended his decision to rest players and not take charge of Liverpool s upcoming FA Cup fourth-round replay with Shrewsbury Town, insisting he is taking a stand for the good of English football.
Liverpool were held to a 2-2 draw by Shrewsbury at the New Meadow on Sunday, meaning the League One side will play a lucrative replay at Anfield next week.
But that match is due to fall within the Premier League s inaugural mid-season break, when Klopp had promised his senior players they would be afforded time off to recover before the campaign s final push.
Klopp received criticism for his decision, with some suggesting he was disrespecting the FA Cup and others calling him lazy , but the German will not renege on his promises.
Speaking ahead of Wednesday s Premier League meeting with West Ham, Klopp launched a lengthy and impassioned defence of his plans.
He said: I have to make decisions based on the situation we are in, some people made other decisions before the season. Whoever it was – and okay, the FA tried to do something with moving games to midweek to decrease intensity – but it came out and whoever was involved, if someone from our club was involved and forgot to say no, I don t know exactly how it was discussed.
The situation ends up, we are given two weeks [off]. In the first moment I thought, okay, two weeks, but it was not clear which week you get, and then we started going a bit into it and then we saw if we get the second week we probably get a Champions League game in that week.
We cannot make then a week off and say there are two days to prepare for Atletico Madrid in this case, so the other week was the first week, for the Champions League teams it s the better week as there s no Champions League games.
And then it came up, Oh, there could be a potential [FA Cup] replay. Because we plan in the long term, I cannot plan like this [at short notice], especially in a really decisive period of the season coming up, so I decided we will have a mid-season break, based on a letter [from the FA] that we got in April 2019 when we were asked to respect a mid-season break.
The winner of our fourth round replay will face .
— Liverpool FC (@LFC)
I know how it sounds now and I don t want to be in the middle of all discussions, I m not a revolution guy or trying to show the whole world how strong I can be or whatever, it s not the reason. If people think that I m lazy because I m not here [for the match], I cannot change that.
People can name me whatever, I m not too interested in that because the only responsibility I have is for my players, and for all the [Premier League] players as well.
If we react now in the way we always react, like, We have to sort it somehow, we ll be here and find a way to do it, then nothing will change. I think all people in football agree that something has to change, and people have to speak.
I don t know who was there [at the FA meeting to discuss the mid-season break], I know the FA said all the clubs agreed, but no sports-responsible people were there. There was not a manager or a sporting director there, that s what we need, that must change as well, otherwise next year we have exactly the same.
I made a decision and now it looks like people want something different from me, so I cannot do what all the people want. Could I be here for the game? Of course I could, but that s again a complete misunderstanding of managing and coaching.
The mid-season break is now something that has to be settled for the next years and all the different parties need to find a solution, so it will not be like this year again, where it s possible that you have one [a break], but you may not.
We do it to make a clear standpoint, and again, if people call me lazy or disrespectful to cup competitions, it s all not true.
Every year we are trying to find our way through the season and it s absolutely okay, it s our job, but if then part of these long-term plans is a mid-season break, then it has to be a mid-season break and you cannot get it [taken] away a week before you have it. That s not possible.
