Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has opened up on the new time-wasting laws ahead of Sunday’s Premier League opener against Chelsea on Sunday.
As seen at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the top-flight matches are now expected to feature longer periods of stoppage time to account for any gamesmanship deemed to be deliberate acts of time-wasting.
Several players and managers have expressed their displeasure but Klopp has admitted mixed emotions about the new laws.
“It’s difficult to answer. I know where you’re coming from, we have a 90-minute game and in the end you have a net game time ball in play between 50 and 55 minutes and stuff like this. And everybody could ask, ‘Where is the ball the other time?’ There are obviously moments where the ball is out and that’s part of the game and that’s completely fine, but how much do we have to extend that in this moment? In the end, if we can get to 55 to 60 minutes ball in play, we will see, that doesn’t sound too difficult, I have to say,” Klopp said.
“When I speak about player welfare, I speak about in general we have too many competitions, we have too many games in general now. But having three or four minutes a game more ball in play, I can’t see it now it will make a massive difference.
“We will see. There will be a massive difference in the end if you have 10 minutes extra time; imagine that, 90 minutes played, it’s 0-0 or 1-0 down or whatever and then you see 10… that gives a boost, that will be intense, everybody will go for that. So that will be interesting to watch. I don’t know yet exactly how influential that will be. We will see that.
“But I understand where they are coming from. I think timewasting got too much in the last years but I think even more so the rhythm breaking was a massive, massive issue that came up in the last years that you thought, ‘Oh my God.’ You have two or three good situations and the ‘keeper stays down for two minutes and you think, ‘Hey, what does he have? Nothing?’ It’s difficult to judge in these moments obviously but that got more and more. From that point of view, I’m quite happy that we try to go for that. I thought it makes sense to give earlier yellow cards. You don’t want to have a yellow card for timewasting, especially not after 15 minutes or whatever, so that’s clear you might not do it then.
“I hope at the end we find a good solution together, that we don’t have 10 to 15 minutes extra time and yellow cards everywhere. We need to find a solution. But as a wake-up call – come on, we’re actually here to play football and not to let the time run down somehow in the moment when we have the result we want – I think from that point of view I rather think it’s good. But, again, more football is really difficult to take in because we are on the edge.
“There’s no doubt about it. I know football people and football fans are like, ‘Yeah, but they do this, they do that, they earn this and that.’ It has nothing to do with it. We are at the edge. We have to make sure in the future we have to sort that. Unfortunately, there are not as many discussions about it because that costs money and nobody is really happy to do that.
“We will see how the next season goes in that department, it will be really interesting. I’m 100 per cent sure I stand out there and if we are 1-0 up and somebody tells me 12 minutes, I will not be over the moon. In the other way, I think, ‘OK, that’s nearly a half-time, let’s go.’ We will see.”
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