Wayne Rooney has taken aim at Arne Slot over one thing the Liverpool head coach said after his team’s 2-1 defeat at Brighton last weekend.
The Reds were playing on Saturday lunchtime despite having a must-win Champions League knockout tie against Galatasary the previous Wednesday night, with little more than 60 hours between the full-time whistle at Anfield and kick-off at the Amex Stadium.
The Dutchman was keen to stress the travails of such a quick turnaround in his post-match press conference after losing to the Seagulls (liverpoolfc.com), although that explanation cut no ice with the ex-Manchester United striker.
Speaking on The Wayne Rooney Show for BBC Sport, the 40-year-old said: “We’ve seen Arne Slot moaning about – well, not moaning, but making people aware about – the time they had to recover from their game on the Wednesday and play Saturday.”
When he was asked if he hates when managers make such ‘excuses’, he replied: “I do. I just don’t get it. There’s not that many more games now to what there was when we played, and when you’re playing games, you have that momentum of playing games.
“You know, you monitor your training, you get through the games, you’re fine. There’s no excuse.”
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Whilst the quick turnaround between the Galatasaray and Brighton matches doesn’t excuse Liverpool’s feeble display at the Amex Stadium, and Milos Kerkez refused to accept that as a copout for the result, Slot is within his rights to point to that as being a contributory factor.
In an era when footballers at an elite level have an enormous number of high-stakes fixtures, to go from playing on Wednesday night to Saturday lunchtime doesn’t allow for an ideal recovery period, and the Reds made one of their longest domestic trips of the season at the weekend.
However, we can also see why Rooney had no sympathy for the Dutchman for banging the ‘tight turnaround’ drum after his team put in such a tepid performance against the Seagulls, who (as John Aldridge pointed out) outran their less fresh opponents substantially.
When managers profess such explanations after a chastening defeat for their team, it’s inevitable that they’ll be castigated for making hollow excuses to try and fob off such bad results, and in Liverpool’s case it’s certainly not a one-off in this miserable campaign.
Hopefully the Reds will have a few more three-match weeks after Easter from continued progression in the FA Cup and Champions League. A full week off between games is only a good thing if you’re winning on the pitch, and that’s something LFC haven’t done nearly enough this season.
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