Jurgen Klopp: It is a crime Man Utd have to play three games in five days

Jurgen Klopp took aim at the Premier League and said it is ‘a crime’ that Manchester United were forced to play three games in five days ahead of Thursday’s rescheduled meeting with Liverpool.

Klopp backed rival Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's decision to make ten changes in Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to Leicester City, despite the result having potentially grave consequences for Liverpool’s fading top four ambitions.

Liverpool head to Old Trafford on Thursday knowing anything less than victory effectively ends their chances of playing in next year’s Champions League.

If that proves the case, Klopp said his club will only have itself to blame for squandering too many opportunities to increase the pressure on those they are chasing.

But he could not resist a dig at the scheduling of United’s fixtures which compelled Solskjaer to rest so many stars against Brendan Rodgers’ side.

“It was the line up I expected,” Klopp said of United’s starting XI.

“Not exactly, but I knew he had to make these changes. To play Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday is a crime. It is. But it is not the fault of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the players.

“My question to myself was: would I have done the same? Yes. You have to. We are late in the season, all the players played a lot of games. United went to the Europa League final so that means an awful lot of games and now you get Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. That is not possible.”

Klopp claimed the Premier League could have found an alternative solution to ensure no club was disadvantaged.

There were discussions about rescheduling Liverpool’s trip to West Bromwich Albion this weekend, allowing United extra recovery time to play Klopp's team this Sunday, but a move needed the agreement of the Midlands side.

“The explanation from the Premier League was that no other team should suffer because of the things that happened in Manchester,” said Klopp, referencing the fans' protests which led to their first game being postponed.

“Let me say it like this - that didn’t work out pretty well. A little bit West Ham, a little bit Liverpool (suffered). But if we don’t qualify for the Champions League it is not the fault of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his team selection or the Premier League. It is our fault. But in this specific case I think things could have been done differently, definitely. But we get more and more used to things rarely going in your favour or direction. It is just accepted as how it is.”

Having earned around £280 million from their last four years of Champions League participation, the stakes are high for Liverpool as they try to maintain their hopes of catching Leicester. But Klopp insisted the general health of the club will not be adversely impacted if his team has to adjust to a year outside the elite competition, arguing he is already working within financial restraints compared to usual title contenders.

“United. City and Chelsea always have advantages in this and we still won the league and the Champions League,” said Klopp.

“So it is our situation and we work like we work. I never look at other clubs and say they can do this and we can't do that. "I am not interested in being the coach of the best team in the world. I am interested in being the coach of the team who can beat the best team in the world.

"It is absolutely not the case to moan or cry about our situation. Our situation is fine.”

After a season in which every club has suffered heavy financial losses due to the pandemic, Klopp doubts if any side will be able to spend record fees on players ahead of next season. "Not playing Champions League doesn’t help, obviously, but it is not our biggest problem because the market will be really strange,” said Klopp.

“I hear a lot about big money moves - is Kylian Mbappe going or not, Haaland, Sancho - I don’t see that happening because the football world is still not in the same place it was before.

“We will see how the market develops but it will not be an early market, for sure. "If we don’t go to the Champions League it is not good but there is still a chance and as long as we have a chance we should not speak about it as if we have no chance. And if it is not then we have to deal with that.”