Dalglish, Mancini agree on fixture glut

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has backed Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini’s claim the club’s play too many matches this time of year.

The Italian has complained that players do not get enough time to rest in between matches in the busy period.

Like Mancini, Dalglish believes the players’ union is responsible for protecting the players and they should be the ones trying to prevent such fixture pile ups.

“I think Roberto made a great point here after our game when he said the players’ union should be the one canvassing for the players,” Dalgish said.

“If the games are coming up thick and fast, then what do the players’ union think of it?”

One of the main enforcers of the increased amount of fixtures over Christmas are TV companies. They pay millions of pounds to football clubs every year, thus have an input in when games shall be played.

Although Dalglish respects the money they have put into clubs has helped the game, he still believes there are too many fixtures around the Christmas and New Year period.

“I think TV has been massively helpful to many people in the Premier League, ourselves included. So we can’t bite the hand that feeds us,” he said.

“There has, though, got to be a bit of common sense. I think a game on the first and the third (of January) is a bit unreasonable really.”

“Nobody listened to us when we made the same point when we had our Carling Cup game (at Chelsea in November) just two days after playing a league game (against Manchester City).”

“It’s not up to us. I think in general there’s got to be a reasonable amount of time for the players to recover.”

“I know people say Roberto has a massive squad and he’s got enough to field two teams and all that, but you’ve still got to take the players into consideration because after all, they are the ones who are the attraction.”