Klopp and Liverpool’s First Team To Snub FA Cup Replay Against Shrewsbury
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has confirmed that neither he nor his first team players will be involved in their FA Cup fourth round replay against Shrewsbury Town at Anfield on February 4.
The Reds threw away a two-goal lead against the League One side to draw 2-2 at the Montgomery Waters Meadow stadium on Sunday.
The replay will fall within the Premier League’s scheduled winter break for all clubs, who have already been directed to give their first team players a period of rest by not organising competitive or friendly games.
The FA appears to have shot themselves in the foot by scheduling the replay in the middle of the inaugural winter break.
Liverpool will instead field a young side featuring most of the club’s u-23 players and will be led by Neil Critchley from the dugout.
Critchley previously oversaw a youthful Liverpool side lose 5-0 to Aston Villa in the quarterfinals of the Carabao Cup last December when the main team was away at the Club World Cup in Qatar.
"Look, our situation is the following: we have known that for a couple of weeks it is like this," Klopp told a news conference.
"Actually, we knew it a bit longer because it was always clear when we came through into the next round it would be like this.
"In April 2019, we got a letter from the Premier League where they asked us to respect the winter break, not to organise international friendlies and not to organise competitive games in respect of it.
"I have said to the boys already, two weeks ago, that we will have a winter break, so it means we will not be there – it will be the kids who play that game because they cannot deal with us like nobody cares about it.
"I know it is not very popular, but that’s the way I see it and, how I said, the Premier League asked us to respect the winter break and that’s what we do it. If then the FA [Football Association] do not respect it then we cannot change.
"But we [the first-team squad and staff] will not be there."
