Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool handed early kick-off after international break as police ban 5.30pm clash against Man City

Jurgen Klopp might be set for another awkward interview after learning about Liverpool’s latest early kick-off.

The Reds face Manchester City on November 25 at the Etihad in one of the Premier League’s most anticipated fixtures.

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Originally scheduled for 3pm, the game was always guaranteed to be moved to a television slot due to the scale of the fixture.

However, Klopp will be livid to learn it’s been moved to the 12:30pm block on the calendar, the earliest kick-off of the weekend, unless there is a Friday night game.

It had been thought that it would take place at 5.30pm, but a local safety advisory group has veteod the timing.

That is due to several fan issues between the two clubs in the past, with Arsenal’s trip to Brentford to now take place at that time instead.

To make matters worse, it comes after an international break in the fixtures, meaning Klopp’s players will be arriving back to training late from all over the globe before having to adjust for Saturday morning.

As evidence to why the scheduling has bothered him so much in the past, Klopp’s Liverpool have a dire record in the 12:30pm Saturday spot, at least by their standards.

Klopp won four and lost three of the games during the 2015/16 season, and things got worse in the following campaign.

In 2017/18 Liverpool won just one of eight early Saturday kick-offs, and the 2021/22 campaign was the only anomaly where the Reds won all four of their early starts, but things were again terrible last term.

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On top of his side’s appalling record in the fixtures, the volume of them will also provoke his ire, with the upcoming City game being the 14th directly after an international break since the German took over in 2015.

That’s a whopping eight more than any other side, and Klopp explained the problem earlier this summer.

He said: “It’s not a problem if you have a week [to prepare]. The problem is the lack of recovery time.

“We have four international breaks until March. Two of them we have 12.30 kick offs. This is a joke. We had players in South America!

“The TV channel has a different name [TNT Sports, FKA BT Sport] but nothing changes at all, they don’t give a…. about it.”