Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has continued his criticism of the Premier League's fixture schedule, claiming only Manchester City are able to cope with playing twice in three days.
Klopp has been a vocal critic of Liverpool's schedule over Christmas, with games on Sunday and Wednesday in the last few days, before a Boxing Day game against Leeds and another at home to Leicester on Tuesday December 28. On Thursday, the Premier League confirmed that the Leeds game had been postponed, at the request of Marcelo Bielsa's side.
With Liverpool among the clubs battling Covid cases in their squads, Klopp has made his opposition to the schedule abundantly clear, and continued his call for more protection for players after leading his side to a Carabao Cup quarter-final win over Leicester on Wednesday - before learning that the Boxing Day game was to be called off.
"The problem is, and will always be, there's no reason for it," he said.
"I have no problem with the Christmas games, Boxing Day is a wonderful game. Nobody wants to cancel that. Just 26th and 28th is absolutely impossible. It's a joke that they still do it. No problem to play 26th and 29th.
"Where's the problem, with the 28th not being a matchday. Then people can see the families. It's still the shortest of all possible breaks but fine. 26th and 28th is just not right, and we will say it all the time.
"People can say they earn so much, it's nothing to do with that. We can play 26th and 29th but it's really dangerous for the players. They say that's what a squad is for, but everybody expects to win.
"We cannot just mix it through, there are maybe two teams when everyone is fit, but Chelsea is not fit now, City might have the squad for two games, 11 players and go through the Premier League. But other teams cannot do that. It's really tricky and that's the problem."
In another interview, Klopp confirmed that all managers will meet with the Premier League on Thursday to discuss a range of issues, likely to include the fixture schedule.
