Early kick offs annoy Rafa

Last Updated : 24-Sep-2006 by
Liverpool have kicked off at 1.30pm against Everton and Chelsea and at 12.45pm against Sheff Utd, West Ham and Spurs with next week's game at Bolton also kicking off at 12.45pm.

The Reds won't play at the traditional time of 3pm until Blackburn come to Anfield on October 14th and Rafa Benitez admits to being annoyed with all these early starts.

"It's too soon for us to be continuously given early times to play in a row. This doesn't give you a lot of time to prepare the players in the way you prefer," says the Liverpool boss.

"I can't understand the fixtures in general. The person who arranges them must be a genius. In Spain, you play every team in the same order in the first half of the league and the second part.

"Here you can play the last game of the first half against Charlton, and then play them again two weeks later.

"They could easily change things to be more fair. There can a big difference in the standard of a team, depending on what time of year you play them. That's why the order should be the same in both parts of the season.

"For example, when will a newly promoted team be most dangerous? Maybe at the beginning of the season when they're new to the league and we don't know much about them, and then at the end if they're fighting to stay in the division. It would be unfair for a side to only play them at these times.

"And when you play a big club at the start of the season, you might expect it to be around Christmas time when you play them again. For some reason, these games are always pushed back towards the end of the season. I don't know how this happens, but as I say, the person who arranges it this way must be very clever."