Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson has slammed the Premier League for their scheduling of Liverpool's fixtures and insisted English sides competing in European competitions should be dealt a better hand by the league's governing body.
Liverpool suffered their third defeat of the Premier League season on Saturday afternoon after a sole, second half strike from Nottingham Forest striker Taiwo Awoniyi proved to be enough for Steve Cooper's side to move off the bottom of the table and claim their first victory since August.
For the Reds, after statement victories against Manchester City and West ham earlier in the week, it felt like another two steps back as plenty of questions were fired in Jurgen Klopp's direction following the loss.
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But Robinson has leapt to the defence of Klopp and Liverpool, insisting that their current injury problems - which he believes impacted their performance at the City Ground - have come as a result of the relentless schedule ahead of the World Cup and believes the Premier League should do more to protect sides.
"You look at that list and it's an incredible injury list," said Robinson on Sky Sports News. "It's no surprise the amount of games they have. The disappointing thing for me, from a manager's point of view, would be, 'Why am I given the 12:30 game on Saturday afternoon?'"
The last week saw the Reds in action three times across six days, with the time between Wednesday's game with West Ham and Saturday's encounter only realistically allowing Klopp to lead one 'proper' training session. Klopp was without Luis Diaz, Ibrahima Konate, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez for the visit to the Midlands.
"We all know because of whatever rights it is but, in this country, we're not nice enough to managers who play in the Champions League," Robinson added. "We want our teams to succeed in Europe and do well in Europe, I think we should look after them when it comes to the weekend.
"There's no reason why Liverpool should have played at 12:30 on Saturday. But that aside; yes it's disappointing from a Liverpool point of view but from the performance, I can't see how they lost that game. They had the chances to win the game.
"In all honesty, if you look at the run they have been on. They beat Rangers, Manchester City and West Ham. You look at that and think it's clicking back into place. He [Klopp] had to play a very, very young midfield; Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott. Fabinho wasn't at his best and I think they got overpowered a little bit in midfield. But I think it's a minor blip on the road to recovery for Liverpool, in my opinion.
"I think Forest showed up, which they haven't done this season. Forest were outstanding. The game before they played Brighton, and Brighton had 79% possession and 19 shots. The week after Forest go and beat Liverpool. A very good performance from Forest. But from a Liverpool point of view, there are a number of factors that led to that defeat. But it's a game they could and should have won."
It was announced in 2021 that Premier League clubs who play in the Champions League on a Wednesday evening would no longer be selected for the Saturday lunchtime kick-off slot. However, because the game against David Moyes' side was a domestic fixture it meant that Klopp's team were eligible for the 12:30 pm selection.
Klopp, along with Frank Lampard and Ole Gunnar Solskaer had been public about their displeasure with the previous rule and being made to deal with the unhealthy turnaround during the 2020/21 season, with the former Manchester United describing it as "an absolute joke". Meanwhile, the Liverpool boss launched an infamous rant at BT Sport's Des Kelly after his side was forced to travel to Brighton just three days after playing away to Serie A side Atalanta.
“I don’t know how often I have to say it, but you picked the 12:30 kick-off, not you personally, but you did it! Us on 12:30, between now and New Year, there’s one more Wednesday and then Saturday 12:30.
"After Wednesday, Saturday 12:30 is really, really dangerous for the players. You don’t do that often."
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