Man City vs Liverpool: Klopp, Guardiola demand change in Premier League schedule

Premier League title defenders Liverpool ended their game against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday with a 1-1 draw. It was Mohamed Salah who scored the opener for the visitors from the penalty spot in the 13th minute. Then, Gabriel Jesus scored a brilliant equaliser for the Sky Blues in the 31st minute.

City could have finished the match with three points but Kevin de Bruyne missed a penalty. After the match, managers of both sides raised concerns about the league's congested schedule.

Liverpool head coach Jurgen Klopp said that the Premier League must change its fixture scheduling. On the other hand, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola mentioned that players aren't protected as they are not getting enough rest between matches.

The concern from the coaches of these two heavyweight teams came a day after Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also criticised match timings.

According to BBC, Klopp said, "The boys are on the edge. No team on a Wednesday night should have the 12:30 kick-off on Saturday. Sunday - no problem. Not the 12:30 because that is a complete killer. You wake up and play football. This is the recovery phase. The Premier League has to change. You want good football? Give the boys a few hours more rest. It's a difficult time. We want to play, obviously, but I heard Ole yesterday as well and I understand him 100%. We are in the situation quite frequently."

Klopp also advocated the use of five substitutes in the Premier League. On Saturday, Man United defeated Everton 3-1, but Solskjaer was visibly angry as he said that a short turnaround from their trip to Istanbul means his side is "set up to fail."

Liverpool and City both played their respective European matches in the middle of the past week. According to the coaches, four days of rest is just not enough for the players to recover, which is restricting them from producing better football.

It seems that injury concerns aren't leaving Liverpool, as they lost their right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold to a calf injury during the second half on Sunday. Consequently, the 22-year-old England international would not be available for international duty.