Liverpool face Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium this afternoon with a 3pm kick-off, despite having played in the Champions League on Wednesday evening. The Reds secured a 6-3 victory over LASK in Linz, Austria, with summer signing Bradley Barcola scoring a hat-trick in their first away fixture of the European campaign.
Head coach Andoni Iraola has expressed concern over the short recovery time, noting the late return from Austria and the impact on his squad's usual rest patterns. "I think obviously it's more difficult when we have played yesterday night, we arrive here [at the training ground] quite late at night and we haven't slept the hours we normally sleep," he said on Thursday, hours after arriving back from Linz.
Premier League scheduling rules
Premier League regulations stipulate that teams cannot play in the early Saturday slot if they have played Champions League football three days previously, as clubs are never asked to play twice within 60 hours. Since Liverpool's match in Austria kicked off at 5.45pm BST on Wednesday and their game against Brentford has not been selected for UK television coverage, the 3pm start allows sufficient recovery time.
Arsenal and Manchester United, who both played on Tuesday night, face away trips to Nottingham Forest and Leeds respectively on Sunday. Liverpool, by contrast, are in action on Saturday, making their turnaround shorter than that of their league rivals.
Adapting to a busy fixture list
Iraola acknowledged the challenge of the congested schedule, which includes a Champions League meeting with Villarreal at Anfield on Tuesday night, meaning the Brentford fixture could not be moved. "This is the challenge of playing, no? It's competitions like the Champions League and it's not going to just happen this week, It is going to be a constant thing this season so we have to adapt," he said.
He added: "We have to be ready, the same way it was a quick turnaround after Manchester City, this is going to be a quick one, the next one, we have like four that are just two days in between games. That is not normal but has happened this time and we have to adapt to these circumstances."
