27 Jan 2020 15:20:37
So come eds1 what’s your take on leaving the kids to play the FA cup. I’d love to stay in all our cup as long as possible but it doesn’t look like the club/ klopp thinks the same way. This is knocking the kids by the way.
What would you like the club to do?

{Ed001's Note - I would prefer them to put out the same team as the first game because Fabinho, Matip and Lovren need to get match sharp.

However if Klopp wants to put out the tea ladies it is his decision, he is the manager and should be able to manage the team as he sees fit within the laws of the game and rules of the competition.}

27 Jan 2020 16:10:27
On a personal note, Ed001 - is it not a bit disappointing that Klopp isn't taking the FA Cup more seriously? I completely understand that he has been instructed that he must respect the winter break, but common, you don't see the other Prem teams in a replay coming out and saying they will play the Kiddies.

I want us competing on every single front, for every single competition - isn't that what Liverpool are meant to do?

Red Sandman.

{Ed001's Note - that's how I see it as well. I get he is annoyed that the FA says to respect the winter break and then schedules replays in that time but we should not have needed a replay. The fault is as much ours as theirs.}

27 Jan 2020 17:57:55
I think he's right, personally.

If the Premier League say "here's a winter break. It's for both the mental and physical well-being of the players. Respect it and don't play any football" and the FA say "here's a competitive fixture in your winter break", then the logical way to reconcile those is to fulfill the fixture without using the senior team who are supposed to need the break for their physical and mental wellbeing.

I don't accept that we're at any fault for needing a replay. The scheduling should account for the competition format, which at this moment includes replays.

I do think he's wrong to not manage the team himself, because that does make it look like he has an issue with the FA Cup as a competition and not just the contradiction between two sets of instructions we've gotten from governing bodies. I get that he's probably doing it because Critchley knows the players better, but Klopp should still be in the dugout.

27 Jan 2020 18:19:35
Something Red, I agree with most of you said, and I do think Klopp should be at the dug out, but I think he wants to make a protest stand to the hypocrisy and contradiction of the premier league and FA, a sort of "Managers need a winter break" as well.

27 Jan 2020 18:35:15
Klopps got an holiday booked. He won’t miss that Benidorm bender with the lads for an FA cup replay With Shrewsbury.

{Ed025's Note - he is booked in for karaoke in the black chicken i hear L8.. :)

27 Jan 2020 18:41:16
IMO The FA got caught AGAIN trying to strong arm a club and it's manager into violating the very rules they set up. I mean, they are trying to have it both ways here which I like Klopp, do not accept. They say the Winter break is there to protect the players mentally and physically hence, NO games regardless of standing, should be played.

Now these same people are turning around to schedule a game within this period (how ironic? ) and tell LFC and Klopp that they are somehow required to put a stronger team out with some of the same players they themselves claim to want to protect? Sorry BUT that dog won't hunt.

I agree that Klopp could play Fab, Matip and Lovs cos they need to play (as that was clear yesterday) esp. since Shewsbury earned the right for a replay. However instead of both parties coming to some kind of agreement on the issue, the FA seem to be trying to bully Klopp so if that is the game they want to play this then they are messing with the wrong manager.

27 Jan 2020 18:56:20
Red Meister, no one's bullying anyone. We knew that any replay would be played next week, so we should have made certain we got the job done yesterday.
I will be there, for the replay, watching our 3rd string, as annoyed as I was last year when I watched us get turned over by Wolves, playing a scratch side. I worship our manager, but feel the one blot on his copybook is his total disregard for the cup.

27 Jan 2020 19:15:14
I think Eds and posters should look at what has really happened here rather than pointing the finger at Klopp and LFC. In June 2018 (no, that’s not a typo, 2018) the Premier League, the Football Association and the English Football League issued a joint announcement about a PL mid-season break to be introduced in February 2020. As part of that announcement, the FA chief executive stated :

"Today’s announcement proves that football can come together for the good of the game. We have also found a way to give the players a much needed mid-season break, whilst keeping the much-loved Christmas schedule in place. As we head into summer international tournaments in the future we are sure that this mid-season break will prove to be a valuable addition for our players. "

So the FA, fully supportive of the PL mid-season break, had 20 months to arrange the FA Cup 2019/ 20 calendar so that the mid-season break was respected. And they failed. So let’s lay off Klopp and LFC please guys.

27 Jan 2020 19:41:00
Wirral, I couldn't care less about what the Fa and Premier league put out about a mid season break. Check out the sides that we have fielded in every FA cup game we have lost since Klopp has been here. I've been at all of them and have felt miffed every time I've come away.
Cast our minds back to when we won the treble in 2001. I don't remember us having a mid season break then.

27 Jan 2020 20:10:54
Rome 1977, good points and I am not challenging the view that Klopp regards the domestic cup competitions as his lowest priorities. No, we did not have a mid-season break in 2000/ 01 but neither did anyone else. This season, Liverpool and a small number of other PL teams are being asked to disrupt the agreed mid-season break purely because the FA cannot organise the proverbial booze-up in a brewery despite having 20 months to get their act together. Should we jeopardise our pursuit of the PL and CL for the sake of the FA Cup? Just my opinion but no, we should not.

27 Jan 2020 20:22:08
Rome1977, that was cos there was NO midseason break in 2001 created by the FA themselves as it is now the case hence, the comparison is illogical regardless of whatever you think of the FA and their uselessness. We don't know what Klopp has planned with the players of even with his own family so whining about stuff you don't know or cannot understand is a futile exercise, IMO.

You can be pissed that Klopp is not doing what you want or picking the team you would like in FA Cup games so have at it BUT he is the manager and that is his decision. You can also be pissed that he is disrespecting the FA Cup and all that but AGAIN, he is the manager and he owes it to the players and the club to do what is right for them. I am not interested in Klopp doing what I want. I am interested in him doing what is right for the club regardless of whether I agree with it or not. This is where we both differ.

27 Jan 2020 21:33:14
Red Meister, if the players and Klopp have a week booked on a Haven campsite that's their fault, they should have considered that there might have been a replay.
With regards to me "whining", I, like several other posters on this site, have spent thousands and continue to spend following us home and away. I think I'm entitled to have a bit of a moan!

28 Jan 2020 00:36:57
Hypothetically, Klopp putting out weakened teams for domestic cups last season might have been a contributing factor in us winning the Champions League. The same could hypothetically be true if we go on to win the league and CL this year. If you are in three competitions then rotation is a necessity and Klopp is fully aware who needs resting to give us the best chance of success. How much the players get paid is totally irrelevant if they are on the cusp of an injury from too many matches in too short a period.