Why Jurgen Klopp will quietly celebrate Liverpool vs Leeds postponement

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Liverpool vs Leeds won’t happen on Boxing Day after a postponement but it’s one Jurgen Klopp may quietly celebrate.

Liverpool confirmed on Thursday that their fixture vs Leeds United on Boxing Day is off. It’ll happen later in the season, of course, but the Reds have this weekend off.

For fans, it’s a shame. Boxing Day football is some of the best of the season and something worth looking forward to. It’s a wonderful tradition but Liverpool fans will have to wait until 2022 for it, unfortunately.

For players and staff, however, this might be something worth celebrating. In fact, it almost certainly is.

Jurgen Klopp will welcome Liverpool vs Leeds decision

Liverpool didn’t just have a game scheduled for Boxing Day but another for the 28th, too. That two-day turnaround was a controversial one at the club, with both Klopp and Jordan Henderson voicing concerns.

“Even though I don’t think it is right in normal times, it feels wrong to insist teams play fixtures within two days of each other in this present situation,” Klopp said, per Liverpoolfc.com.

“Every squad will have been impacted by the current COVID crisis in some way, clearly some more than others. But we cannot put our hands over our eyes and pretend this is a ‘normal’ situation. It isn’t. It’s extraordinary.”

Klopp will quietly breathe a sigh of relief at the postponement, then. Liverpool now get a proper break between Leicester in the EFL Cup and Leicester in the Premier League, rather than a two-day turnaround. That’s proper rest for a squad that has looked thin lately.

Liverpool also would have had to play that game without Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho, Thiago and Curtis Jones. That shouldn’t be the case anymore – that quartet will be back by the time this one is rescheduled.

Now, this does come with the blow of Andy Robertson missing the Chelsea game. That’s a small price for Liverpool to pay, though. As long as Kostas Tsimikas can perform at Stamford Bridge, this decision does work for the Reds.