Arne Slot needed just 90 MINUTES to see Jurgen Klopp was RIGHT

Liverpool extended their stay at the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday.

The Reds emerged from Selhurst Park as 1-0 victors thanks to an early combination from Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota.

The victory was somewhat overshadowed by injuries to Alisson and Alexis Mac Allister however, who will both undergo further scans in the coming days.

Despite wins from both Manchester City and Arsenal, the Reds remain top of the Premier League and Arne Slot successfully battled through his first 12:30 kick-off.

Slot’s changing 12:30 view

Before the match Slot had taken a slight dig at his predecessor Jurgen Klopp when he played down talk about the 12:30 kick-off by saying it is a time that players are used to training at so they shouldn’t have a problem playing then too.

It only took one 12:30 kick-off in the Premier League for the Reds’ new head coach to change his mind on the early start time, however.

After giving a brief update on the injuries to Alisson and Mac Allister, the Dutchman shared his issues with the early kick-off.

“Maybe this is also something that the FA should look at? If you play Wednesday evening, why do we have an early kick-off at an away game [on Saturday]?” Slot told BBC Sport after the match.

“Or they have to look at me and rotate all of my players, but maybe it’s also bad luck, I don’t know, but it’s not the way we wanted it.”

Liverpool vs the 12:30 kick-off

The Reds seem to find themselves in the early kick-off slot more than most other sides. It was a particular problem for Klopp and it has also been a big problem for Liverpool supporters online.

When Liverpool play tomorrow, they will have then played more league games at 12:30 (28) than at 15:00 (27) since the start of 2019/20 #priceoffame

— Andrew Beasley (@BassTunedToRed) October 4, 2024

As well as inconveniencing fans who have to travel to away days, the 12:30 kick-off gives teams less time to prepare for matches, especially if they have played a midweek game like Liverpool did before the Crystal Palace match.

The dislike for the early kick-off seems to have been passed down from Klopp to Slot and the Reds’ new boss will be hoping to avoid it from now on if he can, especially as Liverpool’s fixture list starts to get congested.