It's a new year, but it's the same old Liverpool: having beaten Everton and Man City over recent weeks, they have contrived to drop points away to Sunderland: twice losing the lead in a 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light. It was Liverpool's second game in less than 48 hours: having left the pitch after the City game at around 7.30pm on New Years' Eve, they kicked off at 3pm today in the North-East.
Liverpool were not the only team to face such a quick turn-around: Man City kicked off at the same time against Burnley (albeit at home). They won, but it elicited a bizarrely tense interview from Pep Guardiola.
Liverpool dropped points, however, and Jurgen Klopp gave a pretty angry interview to Sky Sports afterward the game.
Klopp began the game by skewering the bizarre contradiction behind the Christmas TV Schedule: teams are given a very short turnaround between games as matches are staggered for television: although 3pm games cannot be shown live on UK television:
I'm not sure we could have played any better today, because we played two days ago. But you all want to see these games, obviously, even though you don't show them to the people in your own country.
You can watch the interview in full below.
Jurgen Klopp Sunderland Interview
It was a bad, bad day for Liverpool: Sadio Mané now leaves for the African Cup of Nations, while Daniel Sturridge limped off injured, meaning that he may well miss Liverpool's games without their top scorer. Phillippe Coutinho remains injured, while Roberto Firmino spent this afternoon's game looking exhausted.
Liverpool's next Premier League game is away to Manchester United, and will face the prospect of entering the critical game against Chelsea at Anfield on January 31st without a number of key players.
Klopp is not the only manager sounding off about the fixture lists: Sam Allardyce has called for the person who organized them to be sacked, as his Crystal Palace face two games in 48 hours also.
